


Companion

by hermionesmydawg



Category: NCIS: Los Angeles
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dystopia, Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-15
Updated: 2015-10-18
Packaged: 2018-04-20 21:21:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 39,100
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4802630
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hermionesmydawg/pseuds/hermionesmydawg
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kensi Blye, a special agent assigned with enforcing control measures in a futuristic Los Angeles at war with itself, has just lost yet another partner. Without her knowledge, she's been volunteered to receive a new partner like she's never had before.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Tumblr challenge: Extreme AU. 
> 
> I don't own anything except for the alternate universe and the idea of this particular type of artificial intelligence.

She was here again. The ocean blue walls decorated with seascapes, seahorses, seashells, and everything water related except seamen were supposed to be calming. Obviously people needed to be calm and relaxed if they were being forced to visit Dr. Rachel Cranston's office. Dr. Serenity would have been an appropriate nickname if it weren't total bullshit. It's hard to be peaceful and serene when you're attending a mandatory counseling session. She's had to attend way too many.

Her watch vibrated, alerting her of a new message: "Meeting in one hour, GenMark Biomedical Research. NJ."

"Kensi Blye?" The receptionist, a petite Asian girl with an eyebrow piercing, was always so fucking bubbly when she called patient's names. Must be part of the serenity package. "Dr. Cranston will see you now."

Kensi stood from the overstuffed couch in the waiting room and nodded a thank you to the receptionist before walking into Dr. Cranston's office and plopping down on yet another overstuffed couch. Blue. Shocking.

The doctor smiled warmly and removed her glasses, moving to a wooden chair closer to the couch. "How are you doing today, Kensi?"

"I'm fine." It was her go-to response.

"Of course you are." Dr. Cranston returned her rimless glasses to her face and searched the tablet in her hands, flipping through Kensi's file with her middle finger until she got to the most recent entry. "Dominic," she read aloud. "You were partners for a year. I'm sorry for your loss."

The doc was always sorry for every loss, whether they were partners for two years or two weeks. The sad part was that Kensi had been to see her for both. As a special agent for the United States Navy, death was just part of the job. Kensi had heard stories of the way law enforcement used to work. Agents wore suits if they were in a main office or dressed like the public if they were specialists. They didn't draw attention to themselves. The job consisted of criminal investigations, undercover operations, and just keeping the country safe. She thought she would have liked being an agent even more back then.

"Kensi?"

"Yes," she responded, blinking her eyes. "One year. Dom...was a good kid. Too good for this job I think. He had compassion, and a pure heart."

"You don't think you have compassion or a pure heart?"

Kensi shook her head. Maybe at one time she did. "Not anymore."

They all had nicknames for her in the Los Angeles branch of the Naval Criminal Control Service. Bad Luck Blye. Bulletproof Blye. The Widowmaker. Her close friends within the unit would never say such things about her, but nobody else held back. She had the highest turnover rate in partners in the agency. Maybe it was actually her fault. Maybe she deserved their derision.

"Do you want to talk about what happened?"

"Not today." Kensi looked at her watch, amazed by how much time could pass when she got lost in her own thoughts and refused to talk. She couldn't talk about Dom while it was still fresh in her heart. She had a reputation as a cold, uncaring bitch to maintain. "Is this the part where you recommend two weeks of leave from work?"

"It's not a recommendation," Dr. Cranston answered. Her voice was soothing, even when appearing terse. It was a shame Kensi couldn't relax enough to let the woman actually try to help her.

Kensi pushed herself out of the couch that practically swallowed her into its cushions. "Same time next week? I have another appointment today."

"I know," she said, reading from Kensi's file again. "You know where to find me if you want to talk before then."

It was a shallow offer, but Dr. Cranston always ended with that statement. The doctor was impossible to find outside of business hours, as if she disappeared off the face of the planet. Secrecy was a necessity when holding a wealth of knowledge from highly trained operatives, she supposed.

She stepped outside of the old house in the completely unsuspecting neighborhood that housed Dr. Cranston's practice. Secrecy, again. With the amount of visitors in and out, the neighbors probably assumed it was a whorehouse. At least that guaranteed that nobody came knocking on the door unless they were looking for a good time. Sadly, a good time was never had inside that house.

The ocean air was fresh on her face, the one thing that the citizens of Los Angeles couldn't destroy. A thought struck her as she pulled the hood of her jacket over her head and climbed on her motorcycle. Why did Dr. Cranston know about her next appointment when Kensi herself didn't even know what the hell it was about?

* * *

She had to practically sign her life away just to get past the security gates at the Malibu Research Park. A retinal and fingerprint scan, NCCS background check authorization, full body search, and a grumpy security guard confiscating her weapon later, Kensi rolled through the gates of the research community. She'd never been here before. Her work kept her in the heart of Los Angeles and at the ports, where criminals gathered in the highest percentages. This place, though...it was nice. All of the buildings were clean, with reflective glass and polished steel covering every visible surface.

Science and research were the cream of the crop in LA. After the United States pulled funding for foreign aid and shut down the borders, all of that money was allocated into resources to make the US a completely self-sufficient entity. Oil, technology, medicine, and agriculture all thrived. Unfortunately, no one else did. Kensi was too young to remember when everything started falling apart, when people started caring for no one but themselves and started fighting the government with the "us or them" mentality. She chose them, mostly because if she was going to be forced to kill somebody she would want it to be justified or sanctioned.

GenMark Biomedical wasn't the biggest of the buildings, but it was by far the prettiest. Greenery and flowers surrounded the perimeter. It has been ages since she'd seen flowers in such abundance. LA was mostly concrete and sand and she didn't realize how much she hated it until that very moment. She parked her bike, strapped her helmet to the handles, and entered her password to lock the wheels before strolling through the unlocked front doors. In her black jeans and hoodie, she stuck out like a sore thumb, but oh well. The inside lobby was just as swanky as the outside, and completely empty.

Kensi checked her watch again, and yes, she was on time. "Hello?" She called out.

The sea of glass parted like the Red Sea and a tall, bald man with a grumpy face and perfectly pressed suit entered the foyer. He didn't look like a scientist, or not what she pictured a scientist would look like anyway. The closer he got, the grumpier he looked. The smile on his face looked so forced that she thought it was causing him physical pain. When he spoke, his gruff voice matched the hard face. "Special Agent Blye?"

"Yes, uh, hi. Hello." Kensi unclenched her first from her hoodie pocket and extended it to shake his hand.

The man glanced at her hand for a moment before clasping it with a firm grip. "Granger. Owen Granger. We've been expecting you. Come with me please." With that he turned and returned to the disappearing door with Kensi following closely on his heels.

"I kind of feel like everybody has been expecting me here today and honestly, I have no idea why," she bristled, keeping pace with Granger as they walked down a dark, curved hallway. "Anytime you want to catch me up would be great."

"You've been volunteered to be part of a trial run by NCCS. Have you ever heard of the Targaryen Project?" Granger asked.

Kensi scrunched her nose. "Sounds fake, but okay. No, I haven't."

"The name came from a fictional family in a series of novels," he explained. "They interbred, marrying brothers and sisters to each other to keep their blood lines pure and strong. The blood of the dragon, they were said to have. They could control fire, ride dragons, and be kings. Targaryens were extremely powerful, but not without their flaws. They were human, after all."

Kensi stopped dead in her tracks to look at a display of flowers on an empty receptionist desk. Orchids. She had always wanted orchids. Granger wasn't one to stop and smell the flowers, so Kensi sniffed them quickly and hurried to catch back up. "Like I said. Sounds fake."

"The idea was to create a human that could do things no one else could do. Resist fire. Fly. Possess an eidetic memory. Be bulletproof."

 _Bulletproof Blye_. "Are you saying I'm a superior human?"

"Don't flatter yourself, Ms. Blye." Granger gave her a bemused look. "You're lucky, not infallible."

"Who are you again?" Kensi was already starting to dislike this guy, and becoming more wary of her position in this building every second. "Why am I here today? And where the hell are all the people that supposedly work here?"

"People here actually work for a living, not sit around like they're part of the decor," he answered sourly. "And I'm currently the COO of this company, recruited years ago from NCIS to assist with this project."

NCIS. Investigative service, back before it was tasked with criminal control. This man was like her, maybe, or what she could have been. Granger stopped at a door where he entered a code, scanned his hand, and then used an actual key into the door. "So yeah," Kensi said, staring down yet another hallway as he opened the door. "You skipped a question."

Closing the door behind them, he gave her another painful smile. "You're here to meet your new partner."

"You're joking," she replied dully. The hall they were walking down now had a better view, at least. Walls of glass lined each side and she could see into the rooms. Or more accurately, the laboratories with wall to wall bench tops and machines as big as her apartment. "Is my new partner C3PO? And besides, I'm on mandatory sick leave. Why today?"

"DKS-35, actually."

"You're serious. My new partner is a robot."

"No, Ms. Blye." He shoved his hands in his suit pocket. "Back before the Rebellion even began, a grant proposal was submitted to the Department of Defense. The idea was create an artificial intelligence being that could be used in place of humans. Military, police, firefighters. To create another race, if you will, but one that would be able to withstand more damage than any human ever could."

Kensi shrugged to play it off, but this was really starting to freak her out. "I'm still hearing robot."

Granger rolled his eyes. "You encounter one on a daily basis and have been none the wiser about it. They're not robots. You might even say they're almost human."

Who the hell did she know that could be one of these...things? There was one person who definitely fit the bill. "Hetty?!"

He laughed, and that looked even more unnatural than his smile. "Henrietta Lange may be a little less than human but she is certainly not bulletproof. You're close, though."

"Nell?" No way, no no no way.

"Jones was one of the first Companions released to NCCS, yes."

"What do you mean by-"

"A Companion," he interrupted her. "Is the assignment for these particular AIs. After the borders were closed, it was decided that this experiment would work better if the AIs were a normal part of society, just as you are. They would have a human assignment and live with them, work with them, clean with them, kill with them. They would learn how to be human."

"Almost human," Kensi echoed. This was all a little overwhelming.

Granger nodded. "Nell Jones is Henrietta's Companion. She was created with an inexplicably high level of intelligence, but can still kill you with the snap of her fingers if you threaten her human."

Well that explained a lot. No wonder Nell was nearly perfect. "I don't like the term companion. It implies a certain level of intimacy."

"Tell me. What is more intimate than placing your life in someone else's hands?" Granger stopped at another door, probably leading to another hall, where she would make this endless circle again and again until she starved to death. Luckily, behind door number 108 there was an office space. A few desks with actual people sitting at them lined the wall, with another door at the end with Owen Granger's name off to the side of it.

"So I'm getting another Nell? How does that work, exactly?" Kensi found herself staring at the people in the room, wondering if they were really people or if they were experiments. That was honestly a thought she never imagined would cross her mind. Maybe she was dreaming. "Do they all look the same?"

"There are similarities." Granger looked around the room and that's when she realized that she might actually be looking at Companions. "But no, you will have a male Companion."

"What? No," Kensi balked, shaking her head. "No no no no. I cannot have some strange man, who apparently isn't even actually a real person, living with me. My apartment is smaller than this entire room."

"Paperwork is already signed," Granger said. "Per the request of your Operations Manager."

 _Goddammit Hetty_. "Do robots even sleep? I don't have to plug him in do I?"

Another voice chimed in. "They'll do whatever you want."

Kensi looked around the room to see who had spoken. A mop of blond hair spun around in a desk chair, and the face that belonged to it wore an obnoxious smirk. "It's completely programmable," he continued, standing up from his chair. She had to tilt her head back to look him in the eyes, which was rare for her since she was fairly tall herself.

"Really?" She asked, half sarcastically and half curiously.

"Oh yeah." Blondie crossed his arms over his chest. Granger sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose as he listened. "If you wanted to you could set him up in the living room like a decorative statue. If you clap once he'll do a dance for you, twice you'll get a serenade. Don't clap three times though, during the last test run that prompted an impromptu striptease. But don't worry, there's a power button too, just in case."

Well, obviously she'd offended him. The urge to counter the smartass remarks was strong but she held her tongue. "Look, I'm sorry if I offended your research or whatever it is-"

"Special Agent Kensi Blye," Granger interrupted. Wow, he did that a lot. "Meet DKS-35, your new partner."

She blinked silently. Yes, she was definitely dreaming. Or nightmaring. "I'm sorry, what?"

Granger did the fake smile again. "You'll have two weeks to get acclimated before you return to work. Get to know each other. Learn to trust him. He's already somewhat broken in, so this should be less work than for some others. I'll have my information sent to you, so any questions or problems you have, please get in touch with me."

There were a multitude of problems with this situation, and yet she knew there was nothing she could do about it. If there was one thing she was good at, it was following orders. That's why it was easy to fight for the side she did - not because she thought it was right, but because it was what she was used to. Kensi sighed. "Fine. I'll agree, but under protest."

Her new partner was studying her with his head tilted, so she did the same to him. He was lean but muscular with an interesting face and dark blue eyes. Attractive in a California sort of way. He shouldn't have problems fitting in looks wise, but his mouth might be a different story. Could he even drive? All she had was her bike and he was not going to ride behind her, almost human or not. This was all way too much for her to take in, especially right after losing Dom...

He straightened his gaze and his back. "Granger, we might have a problem."

"And what would that be?" Granger asked.

"Is it really a good idea for this arrangement to start when she's, ah, how do I put this? During her lady phase? That can be pretty traumatic just on its own."

Kensi's mouth dropped open in shock. She didn't know whether to feel violated or homicidal. How could he possibly know that? "Is he fucking serious?"

"It's fine," Granger reassured.

"This is not fine. I would say this is actually the opposite of fine," Kensi argued. "How could he know something like that? What kind of freak is he?"

"The best they have to offer." Blondie, or DKS-35, or whatever the hell his name was grinned at her. Surely he had a human name, but she was too livid to bother asking what it was.

"Who needs to learn when to shut his damn mouth," Granger growled. "This is why there is always time set aside for an adjustment period, Ms. Blye."

Always? Just how many of these Companions were out there? And why did she have to end up with this one?

She was so screwed.


	2. Chapter 2

Kensi was pissed. Holy shit, was she pissed. Speed records were probably being broken by the second as she flew down the road towards her home. It would have made her defensive driving teacher proud.

She couldn't reach Hetty to ask her what the hell she was thinking when she volunteered her for this assignment, and she couldn't go to their operations center to confront her because she had tagalong Jack with her. No, Jack wasn't his name. She still didn't know his name.

How was she was supposed to live with somebody when she wasn't even sure if he had a fucking name?!

At least he could drive, and had a motorcycle similar to hers. Provided by GenMark no doubt, because how could a non-human get a job, or apply for a loan? Kensi actually laughed in spite of her anger, picturing how that conversation might go.

_"Yes, I'd like to apply for a loan."_  
_"Okay, what's your date of birth and US ID number?"  
_ _"Uhhh, derrrrrr."_

The laughter continued the rest of her way home as she began to realize how insane this literally was. Did he eat? Poop? Take a shower? What if he took more time primping in the morning than she did? With that long blond hair, he probably did.

It had been a long time since she laughed this hard. She was still pissed, but the laughter made her feel a little more alive. More human. It was a shame that it took someone who was only almost human to bring that reaction out in her.

* * *

Even with her speeding, Kensi and whatshisface arrived at her first floor apartment at the same time. She didn't look at him, choosing to simply walk past him as if he were invisible. She unlocked the door, tossing her belongings onto her kitchen counter and slipping her boots off. "Yeah, so. I live here," she said, acknowledging his presence when he stepped into the doorway.

"You've been robbed," he said, with actual concern in his voice as he looked around the small, cluttered space.

Okay, so yes, Kensi liked structure and order with work. It kept her alive when so many others have let distractions be their doom. But at home, she wanted to relax. Cleaning wasn't her favorite. Folding laundry wasn't, either. And she had a habit of collecting things, in particular pre-Rebellion knick knacks and foreign imports that she found at estate sales or pawn shops.

"I haven't been robbed," she said with a sigh. "This is just...my home."

She could see the wheels turning in his head, and wondered if there were possibly actual wheels that started spinning in his head when he was thinking. "Okay, but. Would you even know if you had been robbed?"

"I would know, jerk." Crossing her arms and planting her feet together, she stood as tall as she could against him. "Do you have a name, DKS-35, or do the others just call you Dick?"

He raised an eyebrow. "I feel like maybe that was your attempt at being funny but it didn't quite work. Do you want a do-over?"

Damn him. If she needed a do-over on something, it would be this entire day. Or week. Maybe life. "That was funny, Dick. Maybe they got your humor and asshole wires crossed when they made you."

A slow smile spread across his face. "Deeks. My friends call me Deeks."

_So Dick wasn't that far off_. "You have friends? You mean others like you, or actual humans?"

"Both." Deeks turned his nose up at her kitchen. "Unlike you probably. I don't see a lot of entertaining going on in a classy joint like this."

Kensi growled but her watch buzzed with an incoming call before she had a chance to test out whether or not he was actually bulletproof. She tapped her earpiece. "Hetty, I am about to commit robotcide."

"Well that's not a word," Deeks muttered, kneeling on the floor in front of one of her bookcases.

"Ms. Blye," Hetty replied calmly. "I apologize for the short notice. This assignment was one that would have made little sense to discuss before it was actually necessary. We had no way of knowing which agent would receive a Companion until the time called for it. You may not see it yet, but this is a very appointment assignment."

"You have a lot more apologizing and explaining to do than just the short notice, Hetty. Three hours ago I didn't even know there was such a thing as a Companion and now I have one sitting on the floor in my apartment!"

"Oh good, you two are getting to know each other."

"No no, not good! He's," Kensi looked at Deeks, who had grabbed one of her tee shirts from a chair and started pulling her books and trinkets off the shelves. "What the hell are you doing?"

"Dusting and organizing, you live in a dumpster."

With a huff she turned her back to him. "He is cleaning my apartment, Hetty! Make him go away!"

Hetty spoke slowly, as if she were trying to hide her amusement. "I believe this may turn out to be a good change for you, Kensi. We will talk more in detail soon. For now, just try to have an open mind and...enjoy the maid."

It was probably for the best that their connection ended then before Kensi said something that would most likely get her fired. Without her job, she basically had nothing. That's why these mandatory leaves of absence were so hard on her every single time. Instead of distracting herself with duty, she was left to face her doubts and sadness alone. As if this wasn't hard enough already without piling that on top of it.

She squeezed her eyes shut and counted to ten. This time she wasn't alone, but it wasn't an improvement. She needed some fresh air and some greasy food, but couldn't leave her weird Companion alone in her home. Who knew what he would do to the place if he was left unsupervised. She turned around and jumped backwards, startled. Deeks was standing right behind her and she hadn't sensed him at all.

"Shit," she muttered, placing a hand over her heart.

"You're hungry," he said.

"Yeah..."  _How does he do that?_  "Um. Do you eat?"

"Predigested only," he answered, but smiled as he said it. "Just kidding. I like tacos. Do you like tacos?"

Kensi nodded. "I could eat tacos."

"Cool." Deeks grabbed his helmet and headed for the door like he knew exactly where they were going. She shook her head and grabbed her own stuff and some money, pausing at the sight right before the doorway.

The bookshelf had been organized alphabetically and by genre, with every book and toy and statue dusted and placed back on the shelves with care.

* * *

"So, uh, where do you live...normally?" Kensi stuffed a bite of shrimp taco in her mouth. She was trying to be nice and engage this Deeks guy, errr,  _almost_  guy in conversation. The food trailer they'd ended up at was at the Santa Monica Pier, one of the places in LA that still remained relatively safe and free from violence. The last thing she needed was to have to work when she was supposed to be doing exactly the opposite.

"There is housing on the Research Park campus when I'm not needed elsewhere," Deeks answered and took a swig of beer. Apparently Companions were created to eat and drink like regular humans. "We have our own apartments, spending allowances, food, clothes. You know, like anybody else would."

Kensi thought he might have to learn on his own that everyone didn't live like that, that so many people wished and dreamed that they could have a roof over their head and food whenever they wanted it. "What about all of your stuff?"

"The necessities will be delivered to your place, hopefully." He curled his lips. "If you don't kick me out before then, anyway."

"I would if I could," she snorted.

"Shocker."

"Sorry, it's not personal," Kensi laughed uncomfortably. "Okay, maybe a little bit personal. You're kind of an ass and I'm kind of a loner, so this is a recipe for disaster."

"Quit acting like this is some sort of ideal situation for me," he bit back. "Nell gets to live in a mansion. Most Companions are coupled with people in positions of power, or at least higher up on the food chain. And for now, I'm going to be on street and port patrol duty with the Widowmaker." Deeks took a bite of taco. "Nothing personal against you, though. I know you're one of the best at what you do."

Kensi watched him, fascinated. Deeks was like a real person, yet not. It seemed like he had real emotions. Did he have memories, or a childhood? Feelings? Did he understand fear and love and sadness? Surely it wasn't possible for any level of science to replicate something as complex as the human psyche.

Deeks crunched on a chip. "It's possible."

"I don't like it when you do that, dammit." She slapped her hand on the table for emphasis. "Is that what you were created for? Because I hate it."

He furrowed his brow. "Created for?"

"Yes. Granger said Nell was created with an extremely high intellect but is also deadly. You don't really strike me as the inhumanly high IQ type and the only thing I've seen you kill is a tray of mystery fish tacos. So what's your deal?"

"My deal..." Deeks pursed his lips, thinking. "Sorry, I'm trying to figure out how to explain it at your rather average IQ level."

"You don't know me."

"Oh, but I do."

The way he looked her straight in the eyes was more than a little terrifying. She tried to divert her gaze but kept being drawn back to his eyes. Earlier at the lab they'd looked dark blue. In her apartment they were gray. Now in the bright California sun they were more like a vibrant cerulean. She wondered if they changed based on his mood, like that old mood ring she'd bought at a thrift store. And she really hoped that he wasn't a mind reader.

"Okay." She leaned forward on the dirty old table they were sharing. "Prove it."

"What, like on command?"

She laughed. "You know nothing, admit it. You're a lucky guesser."

"Sure, fine, you want me to prove it? I'll prove it." Deeks cracked his knuckles and rolled his neck dramatically. A classic stall technique if she'd ever seen one. She was about to mock him again when he reached out and touched her hand with a single finger. "You're right-handed."

"As are most people."

"But you can shoot left handed almost just as well," he continued, tracing a scar on her thumb. His touch was warm and surprisingly soft. "You like knives. Old-fashioned, I like it. You probably collect those, too."

Kensi mouthed "lucky guess" and he smiled. "You like possessions. Not in a greedy way, but like, sentimentally. They're tangible but not living, so you don't worry about them."

The smile on his face faded a little. "You're sad, confused, angry, lonely. You have loved people and been loved back but that only makes it hurt worse when they leave. One way or another, they always leave."

"That's enough." She suddenly felt cold for some reason, and she didn't like it. This semi-psychic display wasn't enough to convince her of anything other than his ability to bullshit. Maybe that was his secret power. Still, what he said was real enough to make her uneasy. "Maybe we should head out."

"You don't want a Companion," he said, following her lead as she stood up but ignoring her request to stop. "You don't want me to be a mind reader. And my eyes change color in different lighting, not because of some sort of magical powers."

Kensi gritted her teeth and began stomping back to her bike. "I don't want to talk about this anymore. Your fun is over."

"You think this is fun for me?" Deeks called out, prompting her to spin around to glare at him. "Really?"

"Yes, I do. What else are you gonna do for fun, huh?" They were standing in a crowd at the edge of the boardwalk. All the people surrounding them made her feel even more on edge than she already was. She tried to keep her voice at an octave he could hear without drawing attention to herself. "I mean, I still can't even wrap my head around your ability to walk, talk, and communicate. What do AIs do in their downtime? Practice the ancient arts of snark and bullshit?"

"That was a pretty snarky thing to say," he rebutted, reaching a hand around the back of his pants. "Though if I were going to practice an ancient art it would probably be rhetoric or Kama Sutra."

Shit in hell, that was the last thing she needed to have a mental image of during an argument. 'Maybe it's for the best if we just don't talk-"

Out of nowhere, Deeks pulled the hand from behind his back and fired a pistol so close to her face that she could feel the heat from the discharge on her cheek. Her ears immediately starting ringing and everything blurred for a second. People were shrieking and running, scrambling to get away from the homicidal maniac with the gun. Her homicidal maniac with a gun. She couldn't hear the thud of the body hitting the boardwalk behind her but the vibration under her feet was unmistakeable.

Slowly Kensi turned around and looked down, squeezing her eyes shut at the sight of a young man with a bullet hole between his eyes. If she couldn't see it, it didn't happen. She blinked and looked again, but it was still real. "Jesus fucking Christ, Deeks," she hissed, or screamed. She couldn't tell. "What did you just do? We don't just blow people away in the streets without cause."

Calmly he knelt beside the body, holstering his gun behind his back again. The boy fell exactly as he stood, with both hands in the pockets of his loose pants. Deeks reached for one arm, pulling it free and sighing when a gun appeared. Kensi watched, amazed, when he pulled the second hand free and revealed a syringe filled to the brim with a pale yellow liquid.

"I can sense things. That's what my deal is." The way he spoke was calm and reassuring in a way, as odd as it seemed. He took the syringe and jammed it into the boy's leg until it hit bone and squeezed the liquid out, then twisted until the needle loosed itself from the tube. Then he pocketed what was left of the syringe and stood up, dusting off the knees of his dark jeans. "And for future reference, all Companions are deadly."

"Right, I um, see that." Kensi murmured. "I'll call cleanup."

Deeks wiped a long strand of blond hair from his brow. "Is it siesta time? I could really use a nap."

As she watched him walk away, she realized that today would go down in the Kensi Blye history books as the most fucked up day of her life. Hands down, no competition. Whether she liked it or not she had a Companion now, and he had obviously accepted her as his human. Even so, there was no way she was going to let this guy...almost guy sleep in her bed, even if he did just probably save her life.


	3. Chapter 3

Kensi awoke with a start and sat up straight in her bed. Her watch said 4:00 a.m., which meant she'd been able to sleep an entire two hours since the last time she woke up in a panic. Sleep didn't come easily to her on normal days, and having a strange man living in her house made it even worse. She tossed and turned for about thirty more minutes before giving up and falling out of her bed.

The living room was dark but she still noticed a drastic change from the norm - the entire room was clean. When she'd gotten home from the pier yesterday, Deeks was already asleep on her couch. He was still there, and still asleep. That answered another question she'd had. He does sleep, and sleep a lot. Killing must be exhausting for him because he slept the entirety of the time she was awake before retiring to the bedroom herself. It could have been a defense mechanism on his part. Maybe he was able to shut his body down in order to avoid any more awkward arguments with his new human.

She still didn't like the word "companion" as a description for this assignment. A "companion" wasn't something she needed or wanted in life, nor was a guardian or bodyguard or anything of that nature. The reaction from her unit at work was not going to be a good one when she walked in with her new robot partner. They were a tight group already and wouldn't be very receptive to a change as dramatic as this one. Though, Nell seemed to fit in just fine. Maybe because nobody knew what she really was.

_They looked so real_ , Kensi thought. Their skin, hair, eyes...it didn't look special. She watched Deeks as he slept, the steady rise and fall of his chest and soft whistle from his nostrils. How could something with lungs that breathed just like her be bulletproof? Or was that just an exaggeration from Granger about what he considered to be his superior beings? What would happen if she shot one of them?

It was definitely the lack of sleep taking over her brain that prompted her to go get a gun and point it at her new partner's sleeping body. She knew as soon as she grabbed her service pistol that she wouldn't actually fire it, but couldn't stop herself from thinking about what would happen. Would it ricochet and hit her? Would it penetrate the skin but not cause any internal damage? Or maybe his superhuman freak powers would detect it and he'd snatch the gun from her in his sleep.

"You know, this explains a lot," Deeks mumbled. "About you."

She lowered her gun slowly. "What about me?"

"Why you don't have any friends or a boyfriend. Or girlfriend." He yawned. "Do you always wake your houseguests by putting a gun in their face?"

"Only the annoying ones."

He rose from the couch with a finger pointed in the air. "Gotcha. Coffee?"

Seriously, Kensi was pretty sure this was all a massive prank at times. If he asked her for some quality reading material for his morning slam in a few minutes she was going to hurl herself off the San Gabriel mountains. She sighed and padded into her now sparkling clean kitchen and squirted some cold concentrate coffee into two cups of ice water.

"It would have hurt like hell, by the way. Thank you," he said, accepting the coffee from her. "If you'd shot me."

So he can feel pain. "Would it have killed you?"

"You're really curious about that, huh?" He flattened a wild curl on his head. "So much so that you actually contemplated shooting me yourself just to see what would happen. That's destruction of government property, you know."

"Aren't we all government property?" Kensi asked dryly.

"Touché. But the big difference here is, I won't hurt you." He sucked his coffee down and walked to the front door and opened it. Sitting on her front stoop was a large box. He dragged it inside and peeled the tape off of it, inspecting the contents.

Kensi turned her nose up at some of the folded shirts he pulled out of the box and placed in a stack in the floor. "Plaid, really?"

He didn't look up from his box. "Hoodies, really?"

"I want to know what would have happened," she said, trying to get back to their conversation. "What happens if I shoot you, or stab you, or give you food poisoning with my terrible cooking?"

"Only one of those can kill me." Deeks pulled an automatic rifle out of the box and checked to make sure all the parts and pieces were with it. The gun may have made Kensi drool for just a second. "And that's why I'll do the cooking. Thanks for the heads up on your culinary skills."

"That's a nice...oh." She was about to say gun, but stopped when he pulled out another, and another, and another. Shotguns, pistols, revolvers, rifle converted pistols. It was like a Kensi Blye wet dream in a recycled cardboard box. "Do you usually have this much firepower with you when they let you out of your little cage?"

"Says the woman with a sawed off shotgun under the couch, a 9mm strapped under the coffee table, an antique .38 in your pantry, and a knife tucked in your boot that you managed to sneak past the ultra tight security at the Malibu Research Park."

"You forgot about the-"

"STI 1911 Escort .45ACP you had pointed at me just a little while ago?" He grinned. "Now that is a beautiful gun."

She beamed proudly for a moment but it started to fade as he made his way around her home, placing his few belongings in the space he'd cleared out for himself at some point in the night. It really kind of irritated her that of all the Companions she could have gotten, she ended up with the guy who was, for lack of a better word, psychic. Nothing was private or safe anymore around him, and she wasn't quite sure how the hell to get away from him. But after last night, she wasn't sure how good of an idea it was for her to venture out alone anyway.

"Hey." Deeks walked back out from her bathroom. "You got anything good to read?"

_Goddammit._

* * *

"I don't know everything."

Kensi rolled her eyes at his false innocence. "That's for damn sure."

He did know how to cook, though. The turkey burger with sweet potato fries was a healthier choice than she would have made but whatever, at least she didn't have to prepare it. Everyone in LA ate healthy, like they were trying to live to be a hundred years old when they should have been worrying about simply surviving a trip to the supermarket.

It had only been one day but Kensi was already growing tired of Deeks. The last time she'd spent so much time with one individual, well, was a long ass time ago. They did share some of the same interests, like guns and movies and running. They ran to the local market to buy food for dinner and raced back. He won, the bastard. What did she expect though, he wasn't even human.

Her belly was full and her couch was calling her name, but the folded blanket strewn over the back reminded her that it was no longer her couch anymore. It was his bed. She should have insisted on a stipend to help feed and take care of her new dependent. If this was going to be as long term as Hetty and Granger wanted it to be, she was going to have to move to a bigger place or risk losing her sanity.

He was washing her dishes now and Kensi did as she was told, sitting like a lump and enjoying the maid. "Do you know why there aren't hoverboards?"

Deeks furrowed his brow. "I actually don't know what the hell you're talking about."

"In that old movie, Back to the Future. Or I think it was Back to the Future II. Marty McFly goes forward in time and people get around on hoverboards, they're like skateboards that fly. That's what they thought the year 2015 would be like when they made that movie. We're way past that now, so why does it look nothing like they thought it would?"

"Ah. The entertainment industry used to focus more on propagating fantasy than exploring reality," he said with a shrug. "Besides, why would anybody need to exercise if they had hoverboards? Why walk when you can fly? It would be like the movie with the fat people in the bubbles."

"WALL-E." She smiled, because it seemed like one thing she knew more about than him was old movies. That information probably wasn't considered to be a priority for a Companion.

"It's kind of sad that you chose to ask about hoverboards instead of whether or not the government has a stock of Smallpox ready to thaw in case it needs to start a pandemic to further enforce the idea that citizens are safe here because no one can come in or get out." He turned the water off and wiped his hands. "You have visitors."

"Wait, are you serious?"

"Yeah." And like that, there was a knock at the door. "See?"

"Not what I...ugh." Kensi hurried to her door and looked through the peephole at two men, one tall and bald and the other short and fluffy, standing on the other side. "Shit. It's two of the guys that work in my unit. They're probably here to check on me. Dammit."

Deeks scratched his head. "Isn't that a good thing?"

"Yes," she groaned, reaching for the door.

"Oh and uh, they don't know that I'm your Companion yet or even what a Companion is so let's just keep that under wraps, yeah?" Deeks said, literally in one breath right as she opened the door.

Kensi stared incredulously at him.  _Now_  he decides to mention that this is some sort of secret? How many fucking AIs were they going to get at work before the news came out that NCCS was half human/half superfreak robot? "Um, hey guys," she said, stepping aside. Both men tensed when they saw Deeks, so she rushed to ease their concerns. "This is Deeks. He's going to be my new partner."

_Because having your brand new partner in your home right after your other partner just died isn't awkward at all, right?_

"I've heard a lot about you guys," Deeks lied, extending his hand to the taller of the two first. "Sam?"

"Yeah..." Sam answered warily. He sized him up, but still gave him a firm handshake.

Deeks turned to the other one. "And Arkady, right?"

Kensi chuckled uncomfortably and stepped beside Deeks. "He thinks he's funny, sorry. This is G Callen, our team leader. Remember?"

"Right, I know, I just...I'm a joker, that's what I do." Deeks mumbled to Kensi out of the side of his mouth, "Okay, but I'm pretty sure his name is-"

"We're not going to talk about this right now," she hissed.

"Nice to meet you, Deeks." Callen extended his hand, not to exchange pleasantries, but to hand him an envelope. "I thought Nell was crazy when she said you'd be here, because there's no logical reason for you to be here, but she was right as usual. I have no idea how she does that."

"I'm pretty sure she's not human," Sam said with a smirk.

Deeks laughed a little too forcefully. "I like this guy, he makes jokes too."

"Not really." Sam placed his hands on his hips and nodded to the kitchen. "Kensi, can I talk to you for a minute? Privately."

"Sure." As she followed Sam to the kitchen, she could hear Deeks asking Callen if he was originally from Los Angeles and groaned on the inside. "It's nice of you guys to check up on me, but I'm fine. Really."

"This is weird, I don't like it. We just lost Dom and Hetty already has a replacement lined up, some guy that is hanging out with you at your apartment. What is really going on here?"

Kensi grimaced. Sam Hanna was the epitome of a big brother figure, and it just got worse and worse every time they lost another member of their team. He was hard and chiseled on the outside, with his shiny head and tattoos covering his body, but was secretly a loving teddy bear. "Hetty wanted us to get to know each other before starting work. To make the transition easier, ya know?"

Technically, it was not a lie.

Though mostly the truth, it wasn't enough to convince Sam. "I'm just going to be straight with you about this. Are you sleeping with him?"

"Oh my God!" She nearly choked on air and utter ridiculousness. "Sam. I just met the guy, what kind of...nevermind, don't answer that. Not just no,  _hell fuck no_. I don't even think he...can we not discuss my sex life please?" Not only was her sex life nonexistent, she was not going to be shagging an almost human. And unfortunately, that thought sparked another question she needed answered but really didn't want to know.

Sam nodded and pulled her into a big bear hug. "I'm sorry. Losing Dom has been hard on all of us. I worry about you and G everyday." Kensi knew he worried about more than just their job safety. She and Callen were both loners and risk takers. Sam had to keep them both grounded. How Deeks would fit into this group, she had no idea.

"Thanks, Sam." She pulled away. "I'm fine, or I will be. Promise."

"I don't think I like this guy," he said, jerking his thumb in Deeks' direction.

_Join the club._  "He's a little different. Maybe he grows on you."

"Yeah, so does fungus."

Kensi snorted and headed back to where Callen and Deeks were discussing the local beaches and which ones consistently had the best surfing. She'd never thought of Callen as much of a surfer but he was speaking like he knew what he was talking about. Did Deeks know how to surf? Granger had mentioned him being already broken in but surfing wasn't something you just learned overnight. What the hell was she thinking, he was artificial intelligence. He could do whatever the fuck he wanted.

"Yeah, thanks man, I'll be sure to check it out." Deeks smiled appreciatively.

Callen nodded. He was always more receptive to the new guys than Sam was. For some reason the term "new guy" was going to make Kensi chuckle for a while because it seemed far more accurate this time. "No problem. You ready to go, big guy?"

"I'm ready for some shrimp curry is what I'm ready for."

Callen smirked. "He gets cranky if you don't feed him. Kens, you know where to find me if you want to talk."

"Yeah, at Sam's house," Kensi joked.

Sam gave his partner an annoyed look. "Exactly. If I have to put up with your ass all the time, the least you could do is buy me some dinner."

"Okay, okay."

As soon as the senior partners walked out the door, Deeks pulled the envelope Callen had given him out of his pocket. "They make a nice couple."

"What? No, they're not a couple."

"Yeah, okay." Deeks unfolded the paper and scanned it quickly, tapping on his watch to make a call as he read.

"Who are you calling?"

He ignored her, grabbing his ear piece from a side table and putting it in. "Granger, hey. Can we meet tomorrow, noonish? No, everything with her is...fine. She doesn't like me, but who does really? So tomorrow, Neptune's Net? Great."

She was waiting with her hands on her hips when he turned his attention back to her, partly because she didn't like being out of the loop and partly because it bothered her that he knew she still didn't really like him. At least that didn't seem to bother him. The feeling was probably mutual. "What is going on?"

Deeks sighed and reached for a statue on her bookshelf, an iridescent blue dragon that she realized didn't belong to her. He flipped it over and pressed a button. Blue lights flashed on her door and windows followed by three loud beeps.

"What the hell, you installed a security system, too?" Apparently she felt safer around him than she realized. Usually a slight change in her home would be enough to set her senses on fire, but the unusually clean surroundings must have thrown her off of her game. Or maybe this weird almost human was responsible for that. "Is there something I need to know about?"

"Yes," he spoke truthfully. "There is a lot you don't know about."


	4. Chapter 4

Usually when someone says "hey, there's a lot you need to know," it sparks the start of a conversation. Unless of course you're Kensi Blye and have had it up to your eyeballs with your new numbnut robot roommate. Having a robot roommate sounded like a shitty late night cartoon, and she wasn't interested in watching or living it at the moment. Being angry at a robot made her think maybe she would make a good candidate for a month's long visit to an asylum.

She yelled. He yelled back. Nothing really was said and they didn't speak again until the next morning when he made her a cup of iced coffee after she exited her bedroom. "Thanks." And then she closed the door again.

Her bedroom was the one place he hadn't cleaned or organized, the one area of happy messiness she still maintained as just her own. It was like he understood that she needed that. That little bit of respect still didn't make up for the rest of this shit, though.

She showered and dressed (not in a hoodie), noticing that he had snuck a few toiletries into the bathroom. Since this was her apartment, she didn't see the harm in snooping in the drawers and cabinets to see what he had. Expensive shampoo, of course. Bodywash that smelled "manly", but a little too manly. Cheap toothpaste. Cuticle cutters and eye drops. No deodorant, though. AIs must not be made with hormones, she thought. That made sense - they're probably easier to control that way.

"I'm coming with you to meet with Granger," she announced as she entered her living room.

"If you'd let me talk last night you would have known that I wanted you to come with me," Deeks replied snidely.

"I want to hear what Granger has to say, not you."

"That makes no sense, I'm the one that requested the meet. I'm the one with information."

Be mature, Kensi, she told herself. She holstered her .45 and her knife then grabbed her helmet. "Fine, you win. Happy?"

She could hear him yell "No!" after the door shut behind her. So, he didn't have hormones but definitely had emotions and possibly a temper. Interesting.

* * *

Owen Granger was already at Neptune's Net when she arrived, eagerly slurping down a cup of clam chowder. The building itself was a historical landmark but it wasn't a tourist, or even a local, spot anymore. The wonderful clam chowder remained however, no matter what.

"Special Agent Blye," he said, nodding to an empty seat at his table. "I trust the reason your new partner is late isn't because you killed him."

"Haven't quite figured out how to yet." She smiled at the server who deposited a menu and glass of water in front of her.

"Not for a lack of trying on her part," an obnoxious voice chimed in as Deeks joined them. He opted for one of his v-neck tee shirts instead of a plaid button down that day.

Granger wiped his mouth and pushed his empty cup to the side. "I thought I asked you to be on good behavior."

"You did, and I have been." Kensi grunted loudly at his answer. "Really?"

She sighed and tilted her head towards Granger. "Look, it's not him, really."

"It's not really her," Deeks agreed.

"It's us."

Granger leaned back in his seat. "It's been two days. Suck it up."

"Agreed." Kensi and Deeks both tilted their heads at the surprise guest that had just arrived at their table and made herself at home next to Granger. "Always good to see you, Owen."

"Likewise, Henrietta." He gave her one of his painful smiles. "I hope you two don't mind my inviting her. Actually, I don't care if you mind. This has more to do with NCCS than GenMark. I'm a busy man and don't have time to kill two birds with two stones."

Deeks frowned at the petite, elderly woman. She slid a leather-backed badge across the table to him. "And good to see you again too, Mr. Deeks. You are unofficially official now, in case there is another incident that requires you to use force."

Kensi jumped in. "Can I just say something here? I don't like to be left in the dark and I sure as hell don't intend to be made the fool here. What is so damn important that it requires a clandestine meeting of the minds in some hole in the wall in Malibu?"

"Nell apparently can't keep secrets, for one thing," Deeks said, rolling his eyes at Hetty's knowledge and presence at his meeting. "The boy at the beach the other night. That wasn't a random attack."

She squirmed in her seat. "I was targeted?"

"No." Deeks shook his head. "I was."

"So much for being safer with a Companion," Kensi grumbled. This was turning into the nightmare that wouldn't end. "How do you know this?"

"He would have shot you first, so you're welcome for that by the way. The syringe was a pretty good giveaway but I wanted to be sure. I dropped it off with Nell, who worked some of her own magic and got it tested for me." Deeks slid the report from Nell across the table. "Botulinum toxin B, just like the others."

"What others?" Kensi asked.

Granger eyed the paper with lab results for a second then turned to Kensi. "The history behind this is too long for us to get into over lunch. I'm sure Deeks can fill you in at a later time. The long and short of it is that the world of artificial intelligence spans a larger area than you know, than anyone who isn't privy to the inner workings of this organization knows. Hundreds of Companions work within the Control Services branch of every military entity in this country. They are a part of the government, Secret Service, FBI, ATF, local police, fire departments...you name it, they're there."

"Hetty..." Kensi looked at her boss, who had always been on the secretive side. If you didn't need to know, she didn't tell you. "You knew about this?"

Hetty nodded solemnly. "This has been going on, gradually, for years. Just as we don't advertise that we are agents for NCCS, they don't advertise their position within our society. Anonymity is the secret to our, and their, survival."

Before Kensi was able to repeat her question, Deeks answered it for her. "Ten Companions, along with their humans, have been shot and poisoned up and down the west coast over the span of the last year. We're pretty sure they were attacked by rebels, but it takes someone with an intimate knowledge of Companions to take down just one, much less ten."

For once, she appreciated that he knew what she was thinking. Kensi remembered the reference he'd made yesterday to her cooking killing him. At the time she thought it might have been a joke, but apparently not. "So he  _can_  be killed?" she asked Granger.

"Don't get too excited, Ms. Blye. Just because he can be killed doesn't mean you have permission to do so. And yes. Companions are not robots, as you like to call them. They're more closely related to what you think of as a cyborg. Synthetic humans, created in our likeness but lacking most of our weaknesses."

"Most," Deeks reiterated. "Because they didn't want to build something literally indestructible, they made the inner workings of our bodies to where the mechanisms mimic yours. It's not completely identical, but the central nervous system is very similar, including the use of acetylcholine as a neurotransmitter. Have we lost you?"

"No," Kensi replied snidely. She hated when people (or robots/cyborgs) doubted her intelligence. Reading and research and history were some of her favorite things when she wasn't busy killing rebels for a living. "Botulinum is a neurotoxin, naturally occurring and relatively easy to produce so it's ideal for a homegrown terrorist to use in an attack. But if you can't be stabbed, what's the mode of transmission? The kid had a needle."

"Inhalation or ingestion. Trust me, I don't want want to picture how far down my throat or nose he intended on jamming that needle."

"You may be annoying, Deeks, but I'll give you this. You could have taken that guy in your sleep."

Deeks furrowed his brow. "Thanks. I think. But he wasn't alone. They have to work in groups, but I'm sure the rest scattered as soon as that dipshit hit the pavement."

Kensi and Hetty shared a brief look and a smile. Dipshit was definitely one of Kensi's terms. "So, now that we've had our science and social studies lectures for the day, let's get to the point. How do we figure out who is responsible for these killings, and why?"

Hetty and Granger stared at each other like they were carrying on a telepathic conversation. Kensi felt a little underpowered, since she was apparently the only person at the table who couldn't read minds. Deeks spoke up, again. It impressed her that he wasn't intimidated by the older, more experienced superiors at the table. "They already know who it is," he said. "And so do I. He's known as The Chameleon."

"And if I know him like I think I do, he's going to be intrigued by you two. Killing his man was just like extending a challenge to him." Granger took a sip of his water. "He'll come again. Now that we know he's using rebels to aid in his dirty work, I need you to be ready for anything he might have planned."

Hetty adjusted her glasses. "Agents Callen and Hanna, along with the rest of your team will be read in tomorrow. We will all reconvene on Friday. I assume it will take them some time to process this information."

"I'm still not sure I've even been read in, Hetty, much less been able to process it all. This is a lot to take in and I don't even think it's half of the story." A lightheaded feeling swept over Kensi, like she was having an out of body experience. How did she go from time away from work, to a Companion, to a killer Companion, to a case? Not just any case, either, this was a damn serial killer. They didn't work cases usually, only people. That was when she realized that when Granger said two days ago that they needed to get acclimated, he was actually talking about her. Not Deeks.

Deeks licked his lips. "What if he actually shows his face, and we catch him? What then?"

Granger narrowed his eyes. "We'll do things the old-fashioned way. Bring him in."

Kensi had started keeping a mental list of the emotions her new not-so-robotic partner was capable of. His eyes were a cold, cloudy blue today and the expression on his face was unreadable. She didn't know what it meant, but it wasn't good.

* * *

She needed to get away. She wanted to hit things, and shoot things, and stab things. Not people. Kensi was growing tired of people, friend or foe or artificial, and all of the shit that came with them. The only place she could go was to work. There were people in the abandoned Spanish Mission building that housed their central command office, but everyone there recognized her "don't fuck with me" face and stepped out of her way.

She practiced head shots with her .45 and belly shots with a shotgun. After pummeling the life out of an old punching bag in the gym, she combined her childhood ballet lessons with her mad knife skills, practicing her arabesque and pirouette on point while slaying the imaginary fuckers who wished to bring harm to her. If only violence could be so beautiful.

They rarely spent time here in the gym anymore. When she'd first started at NCCS, Sam and Callen would begin every morning with a workout while bantering playfully about eating egg white omelettes and whole wheat toast. G would say Sam was going to starve him if he didn't start giving him some fat. Sam would reply that G could use a little starvation and pat his belly. Holy shit, Deeks might have been right about them.

Kensi and her partner would always laugh at the senior agents' antics but never bring attention to their own partnership dynamic. Her favorite had been Mike Renko. Renko was balls to the wall and fearless. Dom was a great guy, but too trusting. There was another partner, Lara, the blonde femme fatale who never backed down from a fight. The qualities she remembered them by were the reasons all of them were dead. And for some reason, she wasn't. The memories flooded her mind then, visions of all the people she'd outlived. Tchaikovsky quit playing in her head and her passionate solo ended with her in a ball on the floor, sobbing for reasons she didn't even understand.

She was stronger than this - sometimes she just didn't know how to get these demons out. "You are not weak," she told herself. "You are fearless and trusting and don't back down from a fight no matter how fucked up it is."

It was time to step up to the task she'd been volunteered for. Kensi Blye wasn't the Widowmaker, she was a survivor with a new partner who would do anything to protect her even though he obviously didn't even like her. This assignment had to be an opportunity, not a burden. Do it the old-fashioned way, Granger had said. She's waited for years to hear those words.

Standing up and smoothing her face and hair, Kensi sheathed her knife and headed straight for the woman who could give her some answers (and some access). Nell was like the friendly genius cyborg to Deeks' snarky mind-reading robot. Maybe she wouldn't be as secretive as he had been so far.

"Hey..." She said slowly, poking her head into the criminal activity surveillance room that Nell sometimes worked in with their tech operator Eric Beale.

"Kensi!" Eric stood up quickly, sending his chair spinning in circles. He wrapped his long arms around her and squeezed. "I thought you were supposed to be at home."

"I am." Kensi squeezed him back and pulled away. "Nell, can I borrow you for a minute?"

Nell nodded, like she had been expecting this request all day. She followed Kensi to the main hall, then past the common area, beyond their incinerator room, and to the dead end of the hall.

"I need you to let me in the old vault, Nell."

Nell grimaced. "We're not supposed to use anything that we have stored in there."

"And yet we still have it," Kensi argued. "I just want to look."

Sighing, Nell popped a small panel from the wall and entered a 10 digit code into the hidden keypad. The corner of the dead end cracked, allowing the small wall to be pushed open. This used to be a secret exit to the underground garage, Kensi knew, but now its contents were more of a museum than a storage area. She'd only heard stories of what she could find buried underneath their command center.

Kensi grabbed Nell's cardigan and tugged her through the opening in the wall with her, leading her down the dark narrow stairs. The walls were cold and prickly, like cement blocks, and the stairs creaked with every step. It was like a scene in a horror film, except the things they feared were outside this dark and mysterious room, not in it. Along the wall her fingers found a light switch and she flicked it, flooding the garage with light.

It was bigger than she imagined it would be, for sure. Shelves lined the walls, full of more police paraphernalia than she thought possible. There were old cars, all foreign, parked side by side in the center. Kensi sprinted to the one closest to her, a gray Mercedes Benz sedan. She traced a finger along the dusty curves in awe, then looked inside the black Mercedes next to it. There was a green Aston Martin. A black Audi SUV sat next to it. They were old and beautiful and she wanted to jump in and hot-wire one so she could bust through the garage doors and give the middle finger to the world as she knew it.

As much as she loved them, she didn't come down here for the cars. She turned her attention to the items hanging from hooks on the walls, which was what Nell was eyeing. "So you know about everything already, don't you?" Kensi asked.

The petite redhead drawled back, "Pretty much."

Kensi pulled a SIG-Sauer 9mm from a wall hook. It was beautiful and heavy and fit perfectly in her hand. "What makes this guy, the one they call The Chameleon, so dangerous? Did he have a Companion at one time? Is that how he knows so much about them?"

"No. Kensi," Nell frowned. "He  _is_  one."

And another piece of the puzzle fell into place. She hesitated, desperately wanting to add the SIG to her gun collection, but returned it to its proper place. She grabbed a few items from the shelves below the pistols and headed towards the stairs, leaving Nell behind with the relics. "Thanks, Nell! You're the coolest non-human I know."

"We were never here!" Nell yelled up the stairs.

* * *

It was dark and she was starving when Kensi finally walked back into her apartment. She closed the door and picked up the blue dragon, arming her new alarm system. The sound prompted Deeks out of hiding in her kitchen, where he was organizing her tupperware cabinet. It smelled of bleach in the kitchen, and she barely stopped herself from rolling her eyes at his cleanliness. He looked at her cautiously but she refrained from bitching at him this time. Besides, he already knew whatever negative thoughts were in her head. "Okay DKS-35, mind-reading cyborg and bane of my existence for the last 48 hours. Feed me, and fill me in."

Deeks raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

Kensi nodded. "Nell already told me that this Chameleon guy is like you."

"Somewhat, yes."

"I know this won't be easy, but I'm ready. Or, I'm going to be ready." She dropped an old bulletproof vest and all of the metal hand and ankle cuffs she had been able to shove in her pockets at work on her kitchen counter. They weren't in the business of making arrests anymore, but they might at least come in handy when trying to apprehend someone who was nearly impossible to kill. "Let's do this shit."


	5. Chapter 5

"Did you bring the keys?" Deeks crunched on a piece of apple. "I bet you forgot the keys."

 _Shit_ , Kensi had forgotten the keys. It wasn't like she was used to handcuffs, or hell, had even really used them before. Not hard metal ones, anyway. "Are the keys really necessary? How about we worry about catching this guy first and the keys later."

"Maybe the keys for your fuzzy handcuffs will work." He crunched again.

She dropped her spoon into her bowl of ice cream. "Have you been cleaning my room?"

"No," he shook his head, laughing. "Wow, you are so gullible. And maybe kinky. Color me impressed."

"Shut up," she growled, returning to her ice cream. "You said you would fill me in after dinner and it's after dinner. And stop mocking my handcuffs. I've always wanted to use them."

"So you're saying-"

"On a criminal," she interrupted sharply.

The smile on Deeks' face faded. "This isn't just some rebel off the street like you're used to."

"I know. You have been trying not to tell me anything but-"

"I tried to talk to you about this last night!"

"Okay!" Kensi dropped her empty ice cream bowl on her end table. "No more arguing. This is the hand we've been dealt and whether we like it or not, you're my partner now. We're going to start acting like it."

Deeks crunched, and squinted at her, and crunched again before adjusting his position on her couch to face her. "You can say it, you know. What I am. It makes you uncomfortable, but it's just a name."

No, she didn't like it. Having a Companion was still a strange concept for her. Partner was a much more comfortable term. "I have a name too, since we're talking about it."

"I know you have a name."

"And you've never called me by it," she claimed.

Deeks shrugged. "Fine. In the future, I will try to address you by your name."

"And I will try not to be weirded out that I have a Companion with a big C."

"Progress?"

"Progress."

Deeks reached under the couch and pulled a tablet out. "Case?"

"Case." Kensi squirmed anxiously, positioning herself so she could see the tablet.

Deeks pulled up an application that looked like something Nell would use on her tablet. Reports and pictures with links to various law enforcement authorities were all organized under case numbers, then file numbers. He pressed his finger to one from the San Diego Police Department. "11 months ago, FBI agent Lisa Rand and her Companion, ironically also named Lisa, were found murdered in a small warehouse in the city's clothing district. Lisa number one had been shot elsewhere, non-fatally, but was moved and eventually bled to death in this warehouse. Lisa number 2 was found in the same room, slumped over in this chair."

He flipped to another picture and pointed to the ropes on the floor. "She'd been restrained at one point but wasn't at the time of her expiration. They had been on an undercover assignment working with a group attempting to smuggle weapons across the Mexican border. Because of this and the high crime in the area, their identities weren't discovered until they were hauled in to the SD Coroner's office."

"Awkward." Kensi grimaced.

"Yeah. They flipped out, with good reason. GenMark and the FBI did damage control and began a small investigation that went nowhere. People aren't trained to be detectives anymore, they're enforcers or protectors. Anyway. The murders were noted but not made a high priority until it happened again in San Francisco. A congressman this time. Then a police chief in Portland. Up and down the west coast. GenMark started doing an internal investigation after the second incident."

Kensi looked closer as he flicked his fingers over the tablet, scanning over the various cases. Every crime scene looked remarkably similar, from the dingy warehouses down to the way the bodies were positioned in relation to each other. The collection and organization of the data was very meticulous. Very Deeks. "I think I'm gonna start calling you RoboCop."

"That's better than some of your nicknames." He shook his head, continuing with his exposition. "The theory is that he shoots the human first and overpowers the Companion while they are attending to the other. Or, as we know now, he is probably paying rebels to help in the initial capture and intoxication. Botulinum toxin is not an immediate death. It works slowly, starting with weakness and descending paralysis until it shuts everything down. Based off of the investigation, we determined that he most likely forces the Companion to watch his human exsanguinate while he in turn watches the Companion die."

Her stomach flip-flopped, realizing that this could have possibly been her fate. "That's really fucked up." She couldn't think of a better way to describe it.

He nodded. "Granger suspected it was The Chameleon from the beginning. Companion death is pretty rare, and murder is obviously rarer. There have been accidents and executions but for the most part-"

"Wait wait wait. Did you just say executions?"

"Now do you understand why I was maybe a little hesitant to just jump straight into all of this?" Deeks asked. "I'd buy the Companions for Dummies book for you but I'm pretty sure they quit publishing those."

"Why did they quit publishing those books?"

"Dummies were offended by the titles."

Kensi snorted. "I have a Horticulture for Dummies book. It didn't work."

"I'm guessing the Housekeeping for Dummies didn't work either." Deeks side-eyed her as she drew a fist back like she was threatening to punch his shoulder. "I wouldn't recommend you doing that, actually. And you're very distracting, we've gotten completely off the subject."

"We were talking about this sick fuck," she said, pointing to a crime scene photo. "And you were about to tell me why your creators were apparently drunk when they made an inherently evil Companion."

Deeks raised an eyebrow. "Was I?"

"You're not the only one who can read minds," she said with a smug smile. "So what's the story with this guy? Was it a lab accident? Is he like The Hulk?"

Now it was Deeks' turn to snort. "No. He's actually one of the first Companions to be sent on assignment. The science behind the bodies and the transformation from nothing to something that could walk and breathe and fight and much more was the easy part. The challenge was creating a personality for each one of these beings, one that could respond and think on its own but not be so free that it could be allowed to make the wrong decisions. Fifty years later and they still haven't perfected that balance."

Kensi wondered for a second if that was his programming talking or the small amount of free will they were apparently given. "So are there more out there with this… imbalance?"

"Not anymore." He shook his head. "Quality control is a lot better. We're vetted for a lot longer before being set loose into the public. Observation and, don't laugh, psychological evaluations go on for at least a year. Those who pass get their assignments and do their duty."

"And those who don't?"

He rolled his head slowly and made an odd face. "Like I said earlier. Executed. Sarin gas chamber."

"This can't even be real." Kensi pulled a throw pillow to her chest. She asked for more information and was getting it, but she longed for the days of blissful ignorance.

"It  _is_  real, and the sooner you accept it as a part of your life now, the better off you'll be." Deeks pointed to her bookcase. "I've never met anyone with a book collection like this. It's amazing. Real books with tattered edges and corner folds that have been read a million times. When those were made, do you think anybody imagined that one day you could have all the information in the world in a phone you could carry in your pocket? And that technology is almost one hundred years old now. A hundred years from now every human might have their own Companion, or an even better version of that technology. Everything is constantly evolving but it's up to you to keep up with it."

"You sound like a scientist trying to make a sale," she retorted. "I already have you, alright? And I'm pretty sure I can't take you back and claim you as defective."

"That has happened." Deeks shoved his tablet back under the couch. "Forty-five years ago, your organization received its first Companion. He was paired with a very young NCIS agent, fresh out of FLETC and partnerless. They were assigned to what used to be known as the Office of Special Projects, a unit that specialized in undercover operations. The partnership had its bumps and bruises from the get go, and as time went on the agent became uncomfortable with his Companion. He enjoyed the killing aspect of their job much more than the crime solving."

"The Chameleon," Kensi said.

"He was created as a face changer, had the ability to change his appearance and personality as needed. It would have been a great asset to an undercover unit if he hadn't been, for lack of a better word, crazy. In today's game, he would have been terminated without question but this was still when this whole concept was new. The agent voiced his concerns and was going to try to lure his Companion back to GenMark for observation, but The Chameleon wasn't fooled. He shot his partner while they were out on an op and left him to die."

"Damn." Kensi grimaced. "And then disappeared because he was able to disguise himself."

"Exactly," he said. "He has been free ever since, moving all over the country doing whatever he pleases. Many murders over the years have been thought to be his doing, but they all lacked solid evidence. Eye witnesses were useless and he doesn't have a traditional DNA profile like a human would."

"He won't get caught unless he wants to be caught."

"Probably not. I believe that's what he's doing now by targeting Companions. Killing humans wasn't satisfying enough anymore. He wants to send a message, to show them how powerful he still is."

"So who is he sending a message to, Granger?"

"Definitely." Deeks nodded. "Granger was that young agent, his partner. When they found him he was barely alive, but he made it. Obviously. NCIS was hesitant to put him back in the field after his extensive injuries so they assigned him as a liaison to GenMark, helping vet and weed out the Companions that showed any hints of being sick fucks. I like that phrase, by the way, I'm stealing it."

Kensi smiled. "I basically like all uses of the word fuck."

"I've noticed, thank you for expanding my vocabulary in such an entertaining way."

"You are very welcome."

"That was sarcasm." Deeks rolled his eyes, which she noticed were dark blue at the moment. "Back to Granger. He was eventually offered a position as head of the Quality Control department, and has moved up from there and is now COO. Because of his law enforcement background, he still hand picks Companions that he thinks are suited for that type of work, as opposed to government or protective duty."

"Like you," Kensi said, clicking her tongue. She had learned a hell of a lot of information about this strange, unbelievable world she'd been thrust into recently. This was definitely going to be a night where she'd need to go to bed with a book like Sense and Sensibility, and not the zombie version.

Clearing his throat, he stood and picked up her ice cream bowl. He began washing the dishes and tidying up the kitchen again. She sighed and joined him in the kitchen, helping him by putting up the clean dishes. "Does it not make you feel proud? Granger must have a lot of faith in you to trust you with something so personal for him."

He shrugged. "I don't think pride is something I feel."

"Do you feel anything?"

"Of course I feel things." Deeks shot her a dirty look. "I feel the need to clean up after you because you shouldn't live in filth, and to protect you when you're about to get shot, and to sleep when my body needs to rest. Just to name a few. Pride isn't a necessary emotion. I'm not here to boast or impress. My emotions are directly related to my ability to do my job."

She leaned her hip against the counter. "What about being happy, or sad?"

"My feelings are tied to you now." He shut the water off and turned to face her, crossing his arms over his chest. "I'm a Companion, remember? I passed the tests. I follow the orders I'm given. And as soon as I was assigned to you, I was connected to you. Yeah, I'm a smartass or a jerk sometimes, but it doesn't change the core of this relationship. It will be like that until this ends."

"And how does this end?" She was starting to feel like she did nothing but ask questions, but it was the only way she would understand all of this.

"You quit your job, or one of us dies," he answered matter-of-factly. "Most Companions outlive their humans, truthfully. They're reassigned and the process begins again."

Kensi tried to speak but a yawn overtook her. It had been a long day, and her bed and book were calling her name. "Well, thank you for being so truthful with me today." She paused, yawning again. "Since you are so in tune with me, I'm sure you realize that I'm very tired."

"Yup. Enjoy your book while I don't enjoy your uncomfortable couch."

"There's the smartass again." She dragged her feet towards her bedroom, but stopped and turned under the door frame. "One more question."

He had his hands under the hem of his shirt but sighed and dropped them. "You ask a lot of questions."

"I like to be well informed. You said that this Chameleon guy was forty-five years old. How old are you?"

He looked at her as if the answer should have been obvious. "Thirty-five...DKS-35. The number isn't just to make it sound scientific."

"Oh." Somehow his age was a surprise to her. "I kinda figured that it was like a version number. But that makes sense. If they tried thirty-five times and still ended up with that haircut, I'd be really disappointed in science as a whole right now."

"Wow, that's..." Deeks chuckled and flattened his hair. "Your insults are improving. This hair actually looked  _really_  good at one point in time."

 _He was older than her_ , she thought. She stared at him for a moment, trying to imagine what it was like to watch the world around you change and people grow older while staying exactly the same. Maybe that was one of the things that had no effect on him, or maybe it was something that made him sad. What he'd said about the potential end of their partnership hit her all of a sudden. "I'm not your first," she said softly.

A sad smile crossed his face. "Goodnight Kensi."

She hesitantly returned his smile. "Goodnight Deeks."


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Congrats DKS-35, you finally got a POV chapter.

"Fight me."

It was Friday, now his fifth day with Kensi. She was looking at him like she just couldn't take it anymore. Not him, necessarily, but she couldn't handle not understanding him. In a way, he couldn't handle it either. She wanted to test his limits physically. He just needed her to learn how how his psyche worked. It was just something too difficult to explain. It had to be learned, and them fighting was not the way to do it.

They were in this weird spot right now, where she kinda sorta maybe was starting to trust him to not murder her in her sleep, and where his need to protect her was becoming more instinctual instead of just necessary. She was stubborn and messy and maybe a little bit crazy. It was a good thing that he wasn't having to think about it so much now.

"I think I already know the answer to this but I kinda want to hear you say it." Deeks muted the local morning LA news on her television and took a sip of coffee. "Why?"

"Multiple reasons." She placed her hands on her hips in a Wonder Woman stance. "There is a psycho version of you out there and I need to discover potential weaknesses in him, for one."

"And for two?"

"I want to see what all the hype is about and you won't let me shoot you."

"Not a big fan of shooting, no."

"And thirdly," she said, stepping closer and scrunching her nose. "You have a weird face and I kinda want to slap it."

He raised an eyebrow. "I have a weird face."

"Yes. Your features are very pronounced and I think a beard would have been a better option for you. To ya know, soften it up a little bit."

Pouting his lips, Deeks rubbed his hairless jaw. That was a new issue to file to his internal complaint department. "And this lack of facial hair on my part inspires you to want to fight me?"

"In conjunction with the aforementioned things, yes."

Shrugging, he set his coffee on the end table and stood from the couch. "Okay. Hit me with your best shot."

Kensi immediately tried to strike his face but he bent backwards and all she connected with was air.

"You missed."

"You moved."

"You think I'm just going to let you hit me?" He asked incredulously.

Snarling, she tried for his face again. This time he grabbed her wrist and twisted it behind her back, pushing her face forward onto the couch. "You're not very good at this."

Blindly she kicked her foot backwards and connected with his knee. He grunted at the dull stinging sensation and let her go, helping her rise to her feet again. "If you were human you'd be curled up in a ball on the floor crying right now."

He shook his head. "I didn't take you for the type to make excuses."

"You know, it doesn't help that you can anticipate my next move." She kicked at his side but he swatted her foot away.

"Block me out," he said, sweeping the back of her knee with his leg and knocking her to the floor. "Don't underestimate yourself. The human brain is far more powerful than I am."

"Is this a pep talk?" She quickly rolled herself back onto her feet and swung at him with her left fist, which he caught with his left hand and didn't let go. "Are we going to sing Kumbaya after this?"

It was obvious that she was about to swing at him with her other fist, so he caught that one in midair too. "I've been told I have a lovely singing voice."

Kensi stared into his eyes, like she had a tendency of doing. She found the way they changed color fascinating for some reason, whereas he thought her eyes were far more remarkable than his own. There was a saying, that eyes were like windows into the soul. It sort of sounded like hokey bullshit but finally made sense when he met her. Despite her attempts to keep everything hidden deep inside, he found her incredibly easy to read.

Her eyes left his, glancing at his nose briefly. Yeah, she was about to head butt him. He was preparing to throw his head back to avoid her attack when her knee made a solid connection to his crotch. He should have seen that coming.

"Ow!" They hollered in unison, with Deeks grabbing himself between the legs as Kensi grasped her knee in pain.

"Whyyyyyy..." He groaned. It had been a long time since anybody had touched, much less assaulted his man parts. He silently cursed whoever's brilliant idea it was to make Companions almost fully functional. It rarely came in handy and sometimes did more harm than good. Like right now. "Who does that?!"

She winced and rubbed her knee. "Why is it so hard?!"

"Why did you knee it?! Are you deranged?"

"But why is it so hard? Do you have some sort of bionic penis? Jesus Christ."

Deeks stood up straight and rested a hand on his hip, exhaling slowly. His pain receptors weren't exactly like a human man's, so he was already over his initial feeling of gut pain that followed any sort of penis pummel. Still, that was not cool. "It is hard because, hello, I'm not human. It's special."

Kensi rolled her eyes. "Every guy thinks theirs is special. And don't take this the wrong way, but why do you even have one? It's not necessary to get the pee out and I know you don't have hormones."

"How do you know that? Did you find my instruction manual somewhere in that pig sty you call a bedroom?"

"Cute," she said with a fake laugh. "You're now capable of making fun of both of us in the same sentence. But no. You don't wear deodorant and you don't sweat. How you can have a nervous system but no endocrine system is beyond me, but I'm not the scientist here."

Well, that was a pretty astute observation on her part. It wasn't up to him to question the science, though. He just knew it worked. Clearing his throat, he answered her earlier question. "I have one, and it serves its purpose. That's all that matters. And I think that's enough sparring for today."

"Fine. It's time to get ready for our powwow with Hetty anyway." The haughty way she straightened her shoulders practically screamed that she thought she'd won, and okay, maybe she had. She deserved a bit of an ego boost just for fooling him.

"Good job with the," he pointed between his eyes and his nose, "thing. I really thought you were going to go for the head butt."

She smiled. "Thanks. But if your junk is that hard, I can't imagine how freakishly hard your head is."

He should have seen that coming, too.

* * *

As they walked into the rundown Spanish Mission that housed Kensi's unit at NCCS, Deeks remembered the first time he'd stepped foot through those doors. He was accompanying his human at the time, and she had a meeting with the infamous Henrietta Lange. Granger had warned them about Ms. Lange's intellectual prowess and manipulatory skills, so he came in with his shields up and verbal swords out. He didn't like her. She didn't like him. But at the end of the day, all was well.

Now it was twenty years later and very few things remained the same. Different human. Different agents. Hetty now looked like she should be reading someone a bedtime story instead of sending a highly trained unit of killers out into the world every day with barely enough information to keep them alive. He still didn't like her. Old habits die hard.

The team scrambled around Kensi as she joined them in the bullpen downstairs, allowing him to watch and observe. He smiled and winked at Nell. She was relieved that her secret was out and that she wasn't alone anymore. Eric stood maybe a little too close to Nell for his liking, and just came off as a little awkward. Probably a tech junkie. Having an AI for a work partner was making way too many of his fantasies a reality, Deeks guessed. Weird.

Callen, as Kensi called him, was greeted with a warm hug from her. He only wanted everyone to be safe and make it home at the end of the day, by whatever means necessary. This was his only family. And Sam? Sam didn't like any of this, including him. He could foresee plenty of disagreements between them. Lucky for Deeks, he did actually have a freakishly hard head.

Most of all, he watched Kensi. She loved her job and her coworkers and was much happier here than being forced to take a two week sabbatical from work. The last few days had been rough on her, but he could feel her warming up to him. That was the part that he couldn't quite put into words - the connection that he had to her. She made her Robocop jokes and all, but still treated him as if he were human. She didn't quite understand what it meant when he said his feelings were directly tied to her.

Because he wasn't human. He was created to bond with one and didn't have a choice in the matter. It had been a long time since he had to bond with someone new. He would fight it outwardly in the beginning, with his snark and smartass remarks, but the end result was inevitable. If Kensi was happy, he was happy. If she was scared, he was scared. Sad, angry, hurt, horny, silly...all of it. It wasn't an overwhelming feeling, but it was definitely there and would only get stronger the longer he knew her. And the choices he made were always based off of doing the right thing for her, not necessarily what was right for everybody else. He didn't think anyone had done that for her in a long time.

Speaking of not putting Kensi first, Hetty was approaching the group and had her eyes set on him. "Welcome back, Ms. Blye, though it hasn't been very long," she said warmly. "And welcome to the fold, Mr. Deeks. I trust you've been introduced to everyone."

"All but Eric," Nell said. "But I've talked about him so much that Deeks probably feels like he already knows him."

Eric blushed and Deeks rolled his eyes. "Nice to put a face with the name, Eric."

Sam grunted and Deeks rolled his eyes again. The big guy would be a thorn in his side, for sure. At least he wouldn't accuse Kensi of sleeping with him anymore now that the truth about their arrangement was out. Well, maybe he wouldn't.

Like it was supposed to be hush hush or something, Hetty whispered a reminder to Kensi about her next appointment with Dr. Cranston. It could just be because he wasn't fond of Hetty, but he didn't like that. Kensi was a big girl and took care of her responsibilities, even the ones she didn't particularly want to do.

Nell glanced at Hetty then tapped a few fingers on her tablet, sending a file of old photographs to a monitor screen that rose out of the floor. Fancy. Deeks recognized both of the men in the photographs.

"Granger with hair," he and Kensi uttered in unison. Also in unison, everyone else in the room turned and stared at them. "What?"

"That's a little weird," Eric said. Like he had room to talk about being weird.

"Anyway." Nell turned her attention back to the screen. "These are the NCIS ID photos from the very first Companion partnership within this organization. I've sent these photos and all the old related case files to your tablets for your review. The man on the left is Owen Granger, who now works for the company responsible for the creation and distribution of Companions throughout the country. The man on the right is MCL-45, Owen's Companion. He went by the name Marcel, just as Deeks goes by Deeks."

"Did you actually choose that name?" Sam asked him snidely.

"Do you actually choose to bald?" Deeks retorted back.

Callen whispered to Kensi, "This could get ugly."

"Tell Sam that just because Deeks isn't human, doesn't mean he doesn't react like one most of the time," she whispered back. "He's snarkier than you are."

"Impressive," Callen said with a smile.

Hetty cleared her throat loudly. "The point of this meeting was to familiarize everyone with our current special circumstance and make sure you all are on the same page. You all can bicker and whisper on your own time."

Everyone said sorry except for Deeks, who chimed in on the exposition. "Marcel is known as The Chameleon to most people, a name he did not choose, for the record. It's very unlikely that he will look like this if you encounter him, but it is possible that he chooses to keep his base face most of the time."

Callen turned to his partner. "Do you kinda feel like we woke up in one of Kensi's bad movies?"

Sam nodded. "Definitely."

"We know he's in Los Angeles and will most likely be targeting Kensi and Deeks again in the future. Everyone needs to be on high alert for anything or anyone that seems out of place or suspicious. Because of our relationships with Kensi, any one of us could be targeted," Nell said, frowning.

"Indeed, Ms. Jones." Hetty clasped her hands in front of her. "Travels and activities should be as limited as possible, and preferably not without a partner. That includes you, Mr. Beale. The Chameleon took the bait much faster than we anticipated. He will be anxious to try again."

 _No no no. No no no no no_. Deeks turned to Hetty with wild eyes, trying to transfer his powers of intuition to her so he could send her a Kensi Blye worthy tirade of sentences prominently featuring the word fuck.

Kensi tilted her head and crossed her arms, and he knew that she had picked up on that slip of the tongue. "Bait?"

"Who's the bait?" Sam asked.

"I am," she answered angrily and looked at him like it all made sense to her.

"No," Deeks said firmly, still glaring at Hetty. "It was a poor choice of words."

"Yeah." Kensi gritted her teeth and barreled past him. "Yours."

Sam immediately moved to follow to her, but Deeks held a hand up to him. "Stay out of it."

"Excuse me?"

"Sorry." Deeks smiled apologetically. "Stay out of it, please." He turned on his heel to find her, knowing that this wasn't going to help the Sam situation at all. What would Kensi say? Fuck it. Sam wasn't the focus of his concern right now.

She wanted to shoot something, he was pretty sure. Though he'd never been in this part of the Mission before, he figured it couldn't be that hard to figure out where the armory and shooting range were. Hopefully there wouldn't be a shotgun pointed at him when he walked through the door. He wouldn't put it past her.

It wasn't supposed to be like this. Agents usually had advanced warning and time to prepare for a thing like this. The adjustment period was more gradual, less rushed. They were never thrown ass first into an investigation, especially not one as serious as this. He knew she was mourning a partner and that the wounds were still too fresh. He didn't think she knew he was going through the same thing.

Kensi wasn't the bait. He was.

As he expected, she was blowing a paper target away when he finally found her. Shooting at the crotch, no less. Fantastic. Deeks stepped into the room as soon as her magazine was spent and was greeted with an immediate "Go away."

"Okay," he said, backing away.

"No, wait." Kensi turned around and grabbed his shirt, tugging him back into the firing range. She reared her fist back and slammed it into shoulder, wincing in pain when it connected. "Yeah, this time you don't block me. Figures."

Deeks tilted his head. "But you feel better after doing it anyway, don't you?"

"Don't do that," she growled. "Don't pretend like you know what I'm feeling."

 _But I do_ , he thought.  _You're trying to pretend like you're angry but you're not. You're hurt and you think..._  "I didn't lie to you."

"Neglecting to mention the truth is the same thing. I thought you said you weren't supposed to be able to make the wrong choices?"

"I did make the right choice," he argued. "Your boss was wrong for making you think that you were being used as bait in this whole scheme and not backing me up when I refuted it. Yes, you're being used, but not by me."

"Is that supposed to make me feel better? I'm being used, but at least it's not by you, the cyborg that I've known for less than a week. No, it's much better to be used by someone I've known and trusted for years, along with someone you've known and trusted for years. Forgive me for being skeptical of your innocence in all of this."

This feeling was oddly similar to when she kneed him earlier, but maybe a little worse. They weren't in that weird place anymore where she almost trusted him. He could see it in her eyes. The trust was damaged. "You're right," he said sadly. "It's not better. And I'm sorry. The truth is that you were never the bait. I was. You were-"

"A pawn," she interrupted.

"A necessity," he corrected. "I needed someone, and they chose you. I'm not whole by myself."

Kensi clenched her jaw, but all he could see were her eyes. She hadn't learned how to shut him out yet, and she was about to lie right to his face. "They chose poorly. I'm better by myself."

With that, she walked away and he let her go. She was going to need her space until she cooled down, and she sure as hell wasn't going to get it in the smallest apartment known to man. If only she could read  _his_  mind. That would make things a lot easier until they got to the place where they were both willing to just communicate with each other.

Sam and Callen were waiting for him in the armory when he stepped out, with angry arms crossed over their chests and legitimate threats to his wellbeing in their throats.  _Don't fuck with Kensi's safety or we'll fuck you up_ , their eyes said.

Deeks sighed. He definitely saw this coming.


	7. Chapter 7

She was here again. The blue walls and seascapes and perky receptionist, just like a week prior. But this time, she had a whole new set of problems. If gaining a Companion served one purpose, at least it distracted her from the sadness and guilt she'd been feeling after losing Dom. Dr. Cranston had probably never heard Kensi talk this much in the entire time she'd known her.

"Do you have any idea what it's like to just all of a sudden share your living space with a complete stranger? One who, did I mention, isn't even human?"

"You mentioned that," Dr. Cranston replied sweetly. "About five times now."

"I don't think I can actually do this," Kensi confessed, dropping her head in her hands. "I've lost my faith in everyone and everything. I don't know what to believe anymore. It's like my life has become a shitty science fiction novel. Sam and Callen were the only thing that was stable, but then I found out that they had some very nasty words with my Companion. And look, I just called him that. Companion. Like I'm somehow becoming used to this."

"What's wrong with getting used to it?"

"Because it makes it real. Inside I'm fighting it. I'm trying to inform myself and ask questions, but somehow that just makes it worse."

"You want answers but you don't like the answers you're given."

"Double edged sword." Kensi pinched the rim of her nose. "Kobayashi maru. No win situation. Knowledge is power but ignorance is bliss."

The doctor sighed and placed her tablet on her side table. "Why do you think they chose you for this, Kensi?"

"I don't know," she answered, laughing so she wouldn't feel like crying. "I'm easy, convenient. Maybe I'm weak and easily to manipulate."

Dr. Cranston cocked her head. "Is that how you see yourself?"

Kensi shook her head. "It didn't use to be. But like I said, I don't know what to believe anymore."

"Are you interested in what I believe?"

She shrugged. "Okay."

"I believe you were chosen because the time was right and because they thought you could handle something of this weight."

Kensi blinked as she listened to the psychologist, swallowing the urge to interrupt her with some sort of argument. She was just going to listen this time, and nodded for her to continue.

"How many other agents do think even know what Kobayashi maru is? Or have picked up and read, as you would say, a shitty science fiction novel? People fight against science because it rules us. It's in our nature to not want to be controlled, and yet here we are. There are some of us who choose not to rebel against it, but not because we are weak. It's because we're strong enough to fight and protect those who are caught in the middle of this chaos we live in."

"There are plenty more that are stronger than I am."

"Maybe so," Dr. Cranston nodded. "But you are young and intelligent and brave. Don't underestimate yourself. It's entirely possible that you were chosen because you are the right person for the job."

Doubtful. She had yet to display any level of competence since gaining her new partner. If anything, it may have temporarily zapped her badassery. "You sound like him," she said.

"Who?"

"Deeks. My...Companion. He told me the human brain is more powerful than he is and that I shouldn't underestimate myself."

Dr. Cranston raised an eyebrow. "He's not wrong."

"This time," Kensi reacted bitterly, though she knew it was a little out of line. Deeks was annoying and frustrating but there was a tiny voice in her head that kept telling her to not fight with him. His voice, probably. "I feel very conflicted around him, like I'm watching him through beer goggles or something. I'm trying but this is hard."

"Hopefully things will become clearer soon." Dr. Cranston looked at her watch, and Kensi did the same. Their time was up. "For both of you."

* * *

She missed the days when she could go somewhere without having someone practically attached to her ass. Deeks respected her privacy for the most part, but Hetty was very vocal about sticking to the buddy system for now. Where she went, Deeks went. When she tried to make light of the situation, she thought of Deeks as kind of a badass stray puppy dog that followed her around and barked at anyone dangerous. At least he was potty trained.

The more she thought about it, the more she regretted blaming him for this goddamn assignment the other day. She hadn't apologized, because she knew she was well within her right to be pissed about being forced into a situation without all the facts. Everything she did know, though, she'd learned from him. After a cooling off period, she stopped ignoring him...mostly. His stupid pretty cyborg puppy dog eyes after she told him that she was better off alone hurt her more than it should have, and haunted her at times.

As revenge for her cold shoulder behavior, he'd worn plaid shirts ever since their talk in the gun range. Okay, it was probably due to the fact that the majority of his shirts were plaid, but still. It could have been out of revenge.

When Kensi walked out of Dr. Cranston's office and into the waiting room, she found her stray dog leaning against the receptionist's desk. Mindy, she thought her name was. They were talking and laughing like they were old friends. At least Mindy liked the plaid. Blue today, which was actually far less offensive than the red one he wore yesterday.

She raised an eyebrow at the pair. "You done?"

"Yeah..." Deeks gave her an odd look, glancing between her and the receptionist. "It was really fun catching up, Mandy. See you next time?"

_Mandy, shit. Not Mindy._

"I'll be here," Mandy replied, bubbly as always. "Have a nice day, Kensi."

"Yeah, uh, you too." Deeks was still looking at her strangely. "What?"

He shook his head and grabbed their helmets from the floor. "Nothing."

"Bullshit."

"I just find your reactions to be interesting, that's all."

"There was no reaction for you to find interesting," she scoffed. And once again, she hated how he practically lived in her head. What would happen if she mentally told him to fuck off? She tried it.

"Now you're just being rude," he grumbled in response. "Still mad I see."

Kensi sighed and pulled open the front door of the house. "It's complicated."

"I'm gonna go ahead and give you an award for understatement of the year for that one."

The sun was insanely bright that day, blinding her temporarily as she blinked and tried to adjust to the light. Her eyes watered and she felt like she was about to...

"Achoo!" She shook her head to clear it before stepping onto the grass. "Your mental acuity is weakening, you should have said Gesundheit before I even knew I had to-"

His hand on her wrist stopped her speech and forward movement. Though he had only touched her a couple of times in the past week, the strength of his hands was an unforgettably strange feeling. Like flesh forged from steel, warm and hard and powerful. He looked confused, like his brain was moving too quickly for him to keep up. "Go back inside."

A cold tingling sensation flowed through the arm he held, spreading through her body like wildfire. She couldn't translate the feeling, but it was bad. Ominous. She was frozen. "What's wrong? What's happening?"

Deeks tugged her roughly back towards the door, practically shouting in her face. "Will you stop asking questions and just fucking listen to me for once?"

"Okay, okay." Kensi stepped backwards, finding herself unable to tear her eyes away from his. This was surreal. For the first time she could see and feel what he was thinking, and spoke his thoughts before he was able to. "They're here."

The force of her body being slammed against the house stunned her before she ever heard the gunshots. The window to her right cracked and shattered, spraying glass across her bare arm. There were more shots in rapid fire all around her but they seemed to be moving in slow motion. Everything was slow - her body, her reactions, the bullets. She braced for the impact and death that seemed inevitable but never came.

"Shoot him!" She heard, or imagined, Deeks shouting at her. Her brain woke up but her heart stopped for a second. She felt like all the breath in her lungs had been stolen away. He was pressed against her, literally acting as a shield against the spray of bullets. She reached around her back for her gun but it was pinned between her body and the wall of brick behind her.  _Shoot him, shoot him..._

Reaching behind Deeks' back, she felt for his holster and freed his weapon. She was going to have to fire blind, trusting her hearing and other senses to guide her aim. Inhaling sharply, she raised his gun and fired three times. Some sort of sixth sense told her that she hadn't missed, and she was right. The gunshots stopped.

"Are you okay?" Kensi barely heard him ask her, and wouldn't have heard it at all if his lips weren't right next to her ear.

"I think so," she answered shakily.

"There's more of them."

A shotgun blast sounded from just a few feet away. Mandy exited the house and pumped the gun, firing towards the street again. She wasn't quite so perky with a fucking 12-gauge in her hands. Another Companion, Kensi realized.  _Holy shit._

Deeks pushed away from the house and snaked an arm around Kensi's waist, grabbing her gun and firing at a boy approaching from his right. Now that she was free from his grip, she could see the scene. There were now four bodies on the ground and four more approaching, like a wave of fucking zombies hungry for human flesh.

Mandy took out another with a shotgun blast. Deeks managed a headshot on one while Kensi hit directly in the center mass on the third. The last one was closest to her and had his pistol set on her chest. She took aim but her new partner shot him in the leg before she was able to fire.

"Don't," Deeks warned her, slumping over to the young man writhing in pain. In all of the commotion she had failed to check on Deeks, or ask if he was hurt, or even really look at him. His clothes were shredded, his hair wild and dirty, and he was pissed. Holy hell, was he pissed.

Deeks gritted his teeth and kicked the the gun out of the boy's hand. "Where is he?"

"I don't know, man," the kid answered through tears. "He just pays us, we, we...what the fuck..."

"Rachel." The sound of Mandy's panicked voice drew Kensi's eyes from Deeks and to the bullet riddled house behind them. The tiny receptionist flew past her into Dr. Cranston's office, repeatedly calling and then shrieking her boss's name. It was one of the most chilling sounds she'd ever heard in her life.

It felt as if a tornado had just touched down right beside her. She and Deeks couldn't have walked out of Dr. Cranston's office more than two minutes ago, but the scene around her looked nothing like before. Blood and smoke clouded her senses, hiding the sunlight behind a blanket of death.

Kensi blinked in shock and turned to Deeks again. He looked like he was struggling to breathe but remained standing over the young rebel. "Don't lie to me," he growled, pressing her gun against the boy's forehead. "I'll paint the fucking street with your brain just like your friends over there. Where is he?"

"I swear, I don't know where. He's close, that's all I know, please."

Deeks screamed in anger or frustration or both, pistol whipping the kid until blood flew through the air and his tears ceased. "Deeks..." Kensi heard herself say. The street was eerily quiet now. The only thing she could hear was the echo of gunshots still ringing in her ears and Mandy's screams from inside the house. "Deeks."

He turned to her and fell to his knees, his hand still gripping her gun. "You're bleeding," he told her as a look of defeat crossed his face.

 _Was she?_  It wasn't until Kensi looked at her arms and felt her face that she realized she was covered in cuts and broken glass. Nothing hurt yet. She was too shocked to feel anything. "I'm okay."

He nodded and whispered, "Good," before burying his head in the ground.

Somehow, though shaking uncontrollably and near tears, she was the only one in the middle of all of this shit still standing. This should have been the most confusing moment of her life, but it wasn't. Instead, everything was frighteningly clear to her.

* * *

Hours and hours and even more hours later, Kensi finally unlocked her apartment and disabled her little blue dragon alarm. That action was becoming second nature to her now, and it was comforting right then and there to have that little dragon to keep her safe. She had another dragon, a much taller and fluffier one, to keep her safe as well. She wouldn't have thought of him as such a majestic creature until today.

Nothing about him looked remotely majestic at the moment. He was tired and filthy, his clothes were ruined, and his mood was beyond piss poor. Withdrawn would be a better description, like he'd figured out how to disconnect himself from his environment. Kensi wished she could do the same, but it wasn't so easy for her. He had called her a necessity a few days before, saying that he needed someone to be whole. That was the opposite of what she stood for, but in a way she felt like she finally understood him. She needed him, to talk to him about everything, because she had reached the point where she had seen too much. They were all in now, a human and her Companion, and there was no point in trying to fight it anymore.

Deeks quietly walked in behind her, locked the door, and reset the alarm. Pain seemed to ooze from his nonexistent pores. The guy needed a bath STAT, but Kensi thought he could use something else first. She stood on her tiptoes to reach the cabinet above her refrigerator and pulled out a very old bottle of bourbon. So old that it probably tasted like shit, but it would do the job. "Drink? I need a drink."

"Um," he spoke finally, after being silent for close to two hours. He glanced at his tattered clothes and shrugged. "Okay."

She dropped two glasses on the counter and poured way too much into them. "A shot and a shower."

"Sure." He narrowed his eyes at the glasses. "Yeah, that's not a shot."

"Double shot."

"Sextuple shot."

"Whatever." She tried to smile, but it hurt. Only one cut on her arm had required stitches, but the others still hurt like a motherfucker. It was nothing compared to being shot multiple times, though. Taking a big swallow of her liquid courage, she blurted out the first thing on her mind. "I need to see."

He took a much smaller sip and raised an eyebrow. "See...what?"

"You know what I want to see."

Another sip. "I don't think today is the best day to show you my bionic penis."

Kensi twisted her lips. "Why do you do that? I'm being serious."

"And I joke." He swallowed and looked away from her. "It must be a preprogrammed defense mechanism."

She stomped out of the kitchen, moving to stand face to face with him. "And what exactly are you defending yourself against here?"

"I-" He shook his head. "It's just been a bad day."

"No shit. I was there, remember?"

He tried to dismiss her and step towards the bathroom, but she put a hand on his chest. "How did you do it? For a minute, right when the shooting started, I could see what you were thinking, I could hear your voice even though you weren't speaking. How did you do that?"

Glancing down at her hand, he sighed, "I didn't do that."

"But-"

"Maybe you should shower first," he interrupted, his attention drawn to the cuts on her arm. "You need to wash those. Did they give you antibiotics?"

"Stop changing the subject," she said, curling her fingers in his shirt. "They tried to kill me and you used yourself as some sort of bulletproof armor to save me. I kept waiting for the impact and pain but you...it's like you absorbed it all. I felt like I couldn't breathe but I could, and I did. I have no idea how I'm even still alive. If you don't think that has a huge ass effect on me then you're not as deep in my head as you think you are."

Deeks clenched his jaw. "I guess you got what you wanted, though."

"That wasn't what I wanted." Ugh, he was still fighting her. She felt it and didn't know how, like she could finally understand him when she touched him. Or maybe she could have done it all along and just didn't try until it was necessary. Now she couldn't seem to stop. "Were you afraid?"

"No.  _You_  were."

"I was." She was still afraid, of a lot of things. She feared the things she couldn't control or couldn't understand. Like Deeks. It seemed like if she could conquer one of those, then she would have the other. Understand him, and she could gain strength from him, or vice versa. She still didn't have the annoying power to read his mind like he could do with her, even though for a moment earlier she'd imagined she could. "What are you thinking right now?"

Closing his eyes, he reached for her hand to untangle it from his shirt, but thought better of it and let his arm fall to his side again. "That his second try was worse than the first. That I don't know if anyone can hold him off for a third. And maybe I should just lock you in your apartment and never let you outside again until I get this guy."

And that he didn't want her to die. He didn't say it, but she saw it even without being able to look in his eyes. She heard the way Mandy had screamed when she found Dr. Cranston. She tried to disconnect her own feelings from the situation, because she did actually like her psychologist, and just remember Mandy. Thinking about that sound again made her feel sick to her stomach. Most Companions outlived their humans, whether they wanted to or not, she now knew. Hers and Deeks' inability to get along half of the time had no effect on his man-made desire to keep her safe.

She released her grip on his shirt and patted his chest. "What are you talking about? I have my own personal robot to protect me. No assembly or batteries required. He's kind of a douche, but makes up for it with the cooking and cleaning."

Opening just one eye, Deeks cocked his eyebrow at her. A small smile formed on his lips, the first one since the incident earlier. "Cyborg. Personal cyborg."

"Potato, potahto." She pushed a stray hair out of her eyes and blew out a deep breath. "I still want to see. By any rational logic, you should not be standing in front of me right now. Help me understand how you are."

He appeared uneasy. Kensi tried her best to give him a look that said, "Dude, I'm not creepy, I'm just curious and it's been a shit ass kind of day so just, please." She didn't even realize that was a feeling you could convey in a facial expression, but it worked, probably because he usually knew what she was thinking.

Deeks ran his fingers through his hair and began unbuttoning his, now very much ruined, shirt. "Usually I at least get some tips or something for doing this," he joked weakly.

"I'm not gonna ask if you're kidding. I don't want to know."

He winced slightly as he slid the shirt off of his shoulders. Kensi diverted her eyes and stepped behind him. His back had taken the brunt of the bullets, but she had no idea just how many until she saw the smattering of spots along his backside. Like dents in his armor. She counted silently up to 9, then breathed a quiet "wow." Gunpowder residue circled a few of them, the closer range shots. The urge to reach out and touch his battle scars was too great. She felt one in the center of his back, her finger slipping perfectly into the depression.

"Ow!" Deeks gasped.

"I'm so sorry, I-"

"I'm kidding," he chuckled.

"That wasn't very nice," she grunted, tracing an invisible line from one hole to the next with her fingertip. "You said it would hurt if I shot you."

"It hurts like hell," he confirmed. "My insides feel like they've been put in a blender. But they'll be fine. Think of it like a bruise."

"You just got shot nine times and you're trying to equate it to a bruise?" It was probably crossing the line, but Kensi pressed firmly on his skin. Synthetic skin, she reminded herself. He was solid as a rock. She thought something that hard should be cold as well, but he was as warm to the touch as anyone else would be. It was fascinating.

"Seven."

"What?"

"Seven times," he said, twisting his head around to look at her. "Two of them were already there."

"There are more?" Kensi's eyes travelled to his arms, where she found another. "There's one. They don't go away?"

He shook his head. "Not a bullet hole, no." Circling his body, her eyes lit up excitedly. She fingered one on his shoulder, and then chest, and stomach, and hip. "You are very strange, has anyone ever told you that?"

"Yes, actually," she murmured. Taking a step back to get a full view, she tilted her head as she stared. He was quite the specimen, long and lean yet muscular. Now she was being borderline creepy, yes. But she was so amazed by his seemingly human body that was actually far more superhuman upon further inspection. "You should be proud of these. I know you said that's something you don't feel, but you should. Simply because of what they mean."

"Thank you," he said sincerely. Rolling his shirt into a ball, he tossed it into the kitchen trash can. One plaid shirt down, twenty to go. "I'm gonna," he pointed to the bathroom, "shower."

"Right, yes. No offense, but you really need it."

"I still smell better than you."

"Sadly, this is true." Kensi sniffed her shirt and contemplated tossing it into the trash as well. "Umm..."

Deeks frowned. "What?"

She nodded her head in the direction of her bedroom. "I'll take the couch tonight."

His frown deepened. "No..."

"You can't sleep on this old thing after...that," she said, pointing to his back. "You're hurting. I insist."

"I...if you say so." He stepped into the bathroom and poked his head back out. "But spoiler alert, you're going to be trying to figure out a way to get back into your bed at approximately 2:00 a.m. Just a heads up."

"No, I won't!" The door closed mid-protest. Kensi looked at her lumpy couch and groaned. Yeah, he was probably right. As usual.


	8. Chapter 8

Oh God, this was awful.

Kensi had been slowly coming out of a deep sleep, just barely conscious, when she felt it like a knife in her back. Her fucking couch was trying to kill her. She survived a spray of gunfire yesterday, yet a piece of furniture in the middle of the night would be her end. Death by La-Z-Boy.

She rolled onto her hands and knees, groaning loudly. It wasn't just her back that hurt. Her arms and face were on fire from all the cuts and possibly tiny shards of glass the Emergency Room couldn't sweep out. The room was still pitch black and she knew it was way too early to wake up for the day. 2:04, her watch read.  _Fucking Deeks_. How did he know she would wake up in misery at almost this exact time? Pride almost sent her crawling back onto her demon couch, but it was too bad. She'd never get back to sleep on that thing.

After drinking a tall glass of water with four pain pills, Kensi peed and snuck into her own bedroom. Deeks was sleeping on his stomach on her side of the bed, his face smooshed on her pillow and his hair pointing in a million different directions. There was no way she could make him get up. This was probably the first good night's sleep he'd had in a week.

She stepped out, grabbing the afghan and pillow from the couch, and tossed the pillow at the foot of the bed. Maybe she could wake up before he did and sneak away unnoticed. That was her last thought before she covered herself up and drifted back to sleep.

* * *

Kensi giggled in her sleep, which was an extremely uncharacteristic sound for her. It was almost beyond her control, though. Something was tickling her out of her slumber, and shit, she was ticklish as hell. She kept her eyes squeezed shut and wiggled her toes against the tickling offender. It was kind of hard and kind of soft, and fit right in between her big toe and the one next to it. Okay yeah, it was definitely a nose.

"You know, in a way I appreciate your complete lack of boundaries. But why are you trying to suffocate me with your toes?"

"Ugh," she groaned sleepily. "Why are you in my bed?"

"Why am I in your bed? Why are  _you_  in your bed? You told me to sleep in here," Deeks mumbled, his voice muffled by her foot.

 _Damn_. "Sorry. I forgot. I don't even remember coming in here." She yawned and snuggled her pillow. "It must have been the couch."

"Your couch blows."

She yawned again. "What time is it?"

"Time for you to get your foot out of my face," he grunted. "These are the biggest feet I've ever seen, Sasquatch."

Kensi quickly jerked her foot away. "That better have been a reference to my foot size and not my current state of leg hair."

Silence.

"Deeks, did you fall back asleep already?"

"Nope."

A number of different grumbling sounds escaped her lips. "You're cranky when you're sleepy. This can't be the first time you've shared a bed with someone, accidental or otherwise."

Now he yawned. "Hardly."

 _Don't ask what that meant_ , she chanted in her head.  _All you do is ask the damn guy questions. And just pretend like it's not weird at all that that the two of you are sleeping in the same bed because the couch is most likely murderous._

"You're funny," he said. "Go back to sleep."

So she did.

* * *

The smell of eggs, hmm no...omelets finally brought Kensi back to the land of the living. Her watch said 10:10, a very late rise for her, but that was honestly the most restful sleep she'd had in months. Thankfully Hetty had suggested they lay low and take it easy after their ordeal the day before. Usually laying low would sound like a safe idea, but it sort of made her feel like a sitting duck.

She was safe with Deeks, though. This much he had proven to her. So today they would stay in and watch TV or some other mindless activity while he recovered his strength.

Deeks had a plate with an egg white and veggie omelet in his hand waiting for her when she dragged herself into the kitchen. "Good morning, Princess."

She took the plate and glared at him. "Thanks, but why are you calling me Princess?"

"Because you randomly say 'but I'm a princess' in your sleep." He took a big bite of his omelet.

"You're lying."

"I don't lie," he said seriously.

Kensi plopped on her stupid couch and started separating the veggies from eggs. "I call bullshit."

"I selectively filter the truth. That is very different from lying. For example, you actually say 'but I'm a fairy princess', I just found the fairy part unnecessary to the story."

Rolling her eyes, Kensi took a big bite of her breakfast. It was damn good, even with the healthy shit in it. "You seem to be feeling better today. Back to your normal snark, at least."

Deeks took a sip of his cold coffee. "I need a restful night's sleep to be at my full snark potential. Therefore, I'm going to set the smartass comments to the side for a second and say thank you for that."

"I almost feel wrong saying you're welcome, but okay. You're welcome." At least he had been able to sleep without a foot in his face for  _most_  of the evening. "You know what would be good with this?"

"What's that?"

"Hot, brewed coffee." She closed her eyes for a second and smiled, reliving a happy memory. "My last partner loved it. He had his grandmother's old coffeemaker, a Cuisinart or something, at his place. It didn't matter how expensive the beans were or how hot it was outside, he was going to come in every morning with a cup of steaming hot coffee. It smelled amazing."

Deeks tilted his head, and Kensi realized that was the first time she'd mentioned Dom. She usually kept everything close to the vest, but sometimes it was nice to just talk to someone (especially if that someone was actually more of a some _thing_  that had a really good track record of saving her life). "His name was Dominic," she continued. "Dom for short. A really good kid, probably too good for this world."

"He died?" Deeks asked, like he already knew the answer but was trying to encourage the conversation.

"Very recently, yes." She took another bite. "Before him was Renko. Before that, Macy. Lara Macy. This is the first time I realized that her first and last name were both first names. Weird, sorry. She and I weren't partners for long."

"Do you, um," he paused, scratching his head. "Wanna talk about them?"

She shrugged. "Not really. If I think about it too much it just reminds me that I couldn't save them. Despite popular belief, I'm not bulletproof like some people I know."

"I understand the remorse you have for whatever the situations were," Deeks said. He shoved the last bite in his mouth and placed his dish in the sink, not waiting until he finished chewing to continue his thoughts. "But I don't see why you feel it is your fault. You can't save everybody, even if you  _are_  bulletproof."

 _Like Dr. Cranston_ , she thought, and had that sick feeling rise in her stomach again. "How many have you not been able to save?"

Deeks furrowed his brow. "How many people? That's an impossible question. We don't know how people's lives are affected by something as simple as choosing the Thai restaurant over Veggies To Go on a given night, or your decision to hunt down Twinkies instead of donuts."

"Your humor isn't bulletproof." She rolled her eyes. "You know what I meant."

"Ah." Wiping his hands on his flannel pants, he turned her screen on and started sorting through her saved films. "I've never lost a human to gunfire, if that's what you're asking."

Kensi sighed and shook her head. He was as stubborn and secretive as she was. Before she could get too annoyed by it, she realized that his emotions and reactions were almost a reflection of her own. He was more sarcastic for sure, but he was open when she was open, cold when she was cold, and warm when she was warm. "Dom was taken by rebels, and shot when we were trying to save him. Macy was murdered, but not during working hours. I never saw her body. Renko...was shot right in front of me. I held his life in my hands. I watched him die," she remembered. The last few pieces of her breakfast didn't look that appetizing anymore.

"Still wasn't your fault." His back was to her as he crouched on the floor in front of her TV screen, tapping through movies that apparently weren't to his liking. "Dave was my first, Jess second. You're the third."

Thirty-five years and he'd had fewer "partners" than she'd had in five? That was pretty impressive. She already knew he responded better to jokes than serious questions, so she tried to pry him open up further. "I don't guess Dave slipped into bed with you and tried to smother you with his hairy legs, huh?"

"More often than you would think," Deeks answered with a laugh. "He partied pretty hard, so we both partied pretty hard. Lots of booze, lots of girls. Callen sort of reminds me of him, the snarky lone wolf type. I blame him for my sarcasm, actually."

Picturing Callen and Deeks in a future snark-off made her smile. "What happened to him?"

"He was CIA. The need for central intelligence was dwindling due to the borders closing, so CIA responsibilities started getting shifted to other agencies. ICE, FBI, NCIS. Dave decided to leave law enforcement before it left him. I think he's just a dirty old man selling cars and perving on younger women now."

Kensi snorted. That was a much better separation story than she expected. "How long were you his Companion?"

"Umm...eight years? Yeah, eight years." Deeks perked his shoulders up. "Ooh, Lord of the Rings trilogy. You and old movies...I've never seen them, only read the books. This would be good for a rainy day cooped up inside."

 _Rainy day?_  "Deeks, this is LA. It hasn't rained in months."

"Oh. If you say so." He pushed play, then asked, "Watch this?"

"Sure." They didn't have anything better to do anyway. Kensi stood up and put her plate in the sink. She needed coffee ASAP if she was going to make it through ten straight hours of television. "So, eight years. That means twenty-seven with your second human."

"Your math skills are astounding." Deeks looked at the couch in disgust and sat down on the left side.

The movie started playing but Kensi kept talking. She grabbed her iced coffee and afghan and curled up on the opposite end of the couch. "So are your deflection skills. That's a really long time. Did she retire?"

"No." He shook his head, eyes focused on the opening of the movie. "One morning I woke up, and she didn't."

"Oh. That's...I'm sorry." That sinking feeling formed in the pit of her stomach again. She kicked her foot out just a bit, barely enough to rest her heel against his foot. The feeling grew worse. It wasn't originating with her, she figured out.  _He_  was the one that kept thinking about Mandy's screams. It brought back bad memories for him. They were haunting him, and this weird connection between the two of them was causing it to haunt her, too.

"That's just part of human life," Deeks answered calmly. "If it's not a bullet or an accident, it'll be a heart attack or cancer. None of you live forever. She never knew it was coming. That has to be the best way, right?"

"Definitely the best way," she reassured him. "You told me about Dave. What was she like?"

"We worked for ATF. She was a cop before that, we got partnered up right after she started. She um, was really serious and always spoke what was on her mind, which you didn't actually want to know most of the time. But nice. A really good person." He twisted his lips and cut his eyes at her for a second. They were deep blue, like they so often were when it was just the two of them talking. "I see a little bit of her in you."

"Did she sleepwalk and sneak into your bed, too?" Kensi tried to joke.

The corners of his mouth turned up slightly. "In the beginning."

She pressed more of her foot against his. The feeling inside of her grew even stronger, but it just made her feel empty. "You're doing it again, the thing where I can feel what you're feeling. You feel empty when you think about her. It's making my heart hurt."

"Don't take this the wrong way, but I think it's all in your head," he deflected again.

She pulled her foot back towards her body. "Stop trying to make me think I'm going crazy."

"Don't worry, I'll tell you if you start going crazy," he said, and she sneered at him. "I think you're just letting down your walls and opening your mind. I get the feeling you haven't done that in a while. Having a Companion is basically a life altering experience. Or so I've been told."

"You think?" Kensi cocked her head. The Shire music was playing. It was such a happy melody, and made her think of bright green grass and plentiful sunshine. "It's only been a week and I can confirm that. Years and years? That sounds like some sort of fucked up arranged marriage."

The funny little smile crossed his face again. "I like this music."

"You don't cry, do you? Cause if you do, you're gonna be sobbing in about nine hours."

Deeks snickered. "I don't cry, but thanks for the warning about your future snot face."

A low rumble sounded outside, followed by another slightly louder boom. Thunder. Kensi sighed and rolled her eyes. "Gah, what a show-off."

He waved a hand in her face. "Shut up, I'm trying to watch the movie."

* * *

"Almost as good as the books, which I did notice you have."

Kensi hid her face behind her blanket and wiped her nose. "That's because you dusted them off two seconds after walking in the door."

"You've got a lot of," Deeks made a circular motion around his face, "splotching going on there. It was a happy ending, why are you crying?"

"They bow to no one, Deeks!" She sniffled. "And then Sam doesn't have Frodo anymore but he has a family and...just shut up. People cry for reasons other than sadness."

"Yeah, it's just very...messy when you do it."

"Shut up or I'll wipe my snot on you."

"That might be enough to make me learn how to cry, actually."

Kensi grumbled under her breath and looked longingly at her bed. How could she just ask him to sleep on her shit couch again, knowing how fucking uncomfortable it was? That would be a little bitchy. But at the same time, there was no way in hell she could sleep on it either. It was bad enough sitting on it for the majority of a movie marathon (they did yoga during the parts where Frodo and Sam were just walking forever and ever). That was the last time she was ever going to go furniture shopping on garbage day in Malibu.

"It's fine," Deeks interrupted her thoughts. "I can sleep on the couch again."

Inwardly she groaned. She couldn't make him do it. "No. But your head has to be at the foot of the bed this time."

"What is your reasoning for this scheme again?"

She shrugged. "It's just what you do if you have to sleep with a male acquaintance. To keep it, you know, non-sexual."

He scratched his head. "You know the important parts still line up, right? Also, that I'm not human. I feel like I have to keep reminding you of that."

"Trust me, I am very aware of your inhumanity. Yet you made it clear that you also possess, as you put it, the important parts."

Deeks rolled his eyes. "Fine. I will keep that to myself, and you will keep your giant feet to yourself, and we will try to make it work for now."

"Deal."

Kensi wasn't necessarily modest but still appreciated that Deeks had a way of disappearing when she changed clothes. His little nuances started to make sense the more she learned about him. What she initially thought to be the behavior of a brash young know-it-all was actually more reminiscent of the surly veteran that he was. He cooked and cleaned because he'd spent years living with someone and was accustomed to living a certain lifestyle. And his totally dumbass statement about her period cycles when they first met was probably half from experience and half from his general douchebag personality.

And he did have to keep reminding her of what he was. Treating him like he was less than human was a hell of a lot harder when he did things that were so very human-like - he got angry, he laughed, he felt pain and happiness. The weird connection that she was feeling and he denied was definitely more supernatural than natural, though.

True to his word, he was resting on her bed with his feet on her pillows and head nearly falling off the end when she exited the bathroom. She tapped his feet. "Should we set some boundaries here?"

He scooted over. "Why? You'll just break them."

"You don't know tha - shit. Shut up."

"Your weird sleeping acrobatics don't really bother me. I used to live with a snorer. I'm talking wall shaking, earthquake-like snoring."

Kensi snickered quietly and slid under her covers, kicking her feet to get comfortable. The funny feeling hit her again. It was starting to get annoying, and she was going to feel really stupid if it was all in her head. Maybe she was coming down with the flu. "It's okay for you to say you miss her, you know. I miss my friends that I've lost."

Deeks rolled onto his side, with his back towards her. "I say pretty much everything I want to say, when I want to say it."

 _Stubborn cyborg_ , she thought, hoping he would know she was thinking it.

"Fine," he grumbled. "I don't know why it matters to you. Yes, I miss her. And I still miss Dave's crazy ass. And if I fail and something happens to you, I'll miss you too."

A sick, sad thought popped into her head. Or more like, hit her in the head. "Did you volunteer for The Chameleon assignment?"

She could hear him sigh. He hesitated before speaking. "No. I asked to be retired, but they had other plans for me."

"I'm a little confused-"

"Of course."

"Is there like, a retirement community for Companions somewhere?" It sounded like a joke but honestly, all of the rest of this shit was so unbelievable already. Why not add one more weird thing to it? "I bet you'd kill at canasta."

He snorted. "Yeah, they ship us off to central Florida. I have a condo with my name on it just waiting for me at Del Boca Vista Phase IV. There's even a hot tub."

"You gotta have a hot tub," Kensi agreed sarcastically. She rolled onto her side as well so they were lying butt to butt. He did have a point - their junk still lined up. "But no really. Retirement for a robot doesn't sound like a good thing."

"I guess that depends on your perspective," he countered quietly. "Remember at the end of the last movie, when Frodo and Bilbo leave to go to the Grey Havens with the elves? After the ring was destroyed, Frodo couldn't go back to his old life in the Shire anymore. It's sort of like that, but more final. Sometimes Companions don't think they can start over and bond, and that's basically like having a defective piece of equipment."

Kensi furrowed her brow. The way he talked about Companions sometimes, as if they were just property of the government, disturbed her. Like he was trying too hard to justify his previous decision to "retire", as he put it. It sounded a lot more like he was talking about being terminated. "By final, do you mean-"

"Yes," he interrupted.

She was going to say the gas chamber. This was now a topic she just didn't want to talk about anymore. There were a lot more questions she wanted to ask, most specifically - did Companions love their humans? Or did they have to be loved by their human first in order to have that emotion? Maybe that was why she got the empty feeling from him. He'd known love, and now it was gone.

She snuck her hand out from under the covers and found his in the dark, giving it a firm squeeze. "I don't think you're defective, for whatever it's worth."

Earlier when she touched him, the empty feeling inside intensified. This time, it began to go away.


	9. Chapter 9

If there was one thing he had actually enjoyed about being human-less, it was the extra sleep. Sleep was amazing. It was like setting a machine to minimal usage in order to save battery power, but it actually charged the batteries instead of just conserving them. He needed to be fully charged during dangerous times like this, and the knee in his back and arms over his legs throughout the night were not helping to get him there. The knee in the back was especially uncomfortable. It wasn't like he'd just taken seven bullets back there or anything.

Every human managed to disrupt his sleep. Dave stayed up super late and flooded his ears with the sounds of "oh yeah, that's the shit" from whichever female he decided to pleasure on a given night. Jess watched TV in bed and snored right in his ear. Plus, she repeatedly snoozed the most annoying alarm in the world every single morning until the one time she just never heard it. At least Kensi was pretty quiet, but she basically transformed into a snuggly human starfish as soon as her head hit the pillow.

It was almost time to get up, and Deeks didn't want to. Even with his disrupted sleep and internal complaints, it was nice to share a bed with someone again.

Another reason to stay in bed was a gut feeling he just couldn't shake. Something bad was going to happen today. Unfortunately he didn't know what, where, when, or how it was going to go down yet. Like he'd told Kensi - he didn't know everything. Sometimes he thought it would be easier if he knew much less than he did. Any of the skills other than sense would have been great. Flying, now that would have been an awesome skill to have been created with. For one, it's badass as hell. Secondly, he was pretty sure that humans couldn't learn to fly just because their Companion could.

Deeks kept telling Kensi that she was imagining things when she'd say she could feel him, simply because that's what he wanted to be true. It took Jess years to understand that her ability to sense and feel was heightened with him. Dave never did know that he could have utilized his wingman powers to an even greater extent than he already did. For Kensi to already be realizing it after only one week was unheard of. Bonding to someone new was something he didn't think his brain was capable of doing again, nor did he even want to try. Yet it was happening anyway. Maybe it wouldn't have with most other humans, but apparently she was a good choice for him.

Kensi was, by nature, extremely curious and would have made a great detective a century or two ago. He didn't think she belonged in this world they lived in now, like her soul was born in the wrong day and time. What she did now, defending the innocent against unnecessary violence, was unbelievably brave. In another world though, she could have led armies or saved the whole world from the shit that it had become.

Yes, Deeks had begun to grow fond of his annoying human. Flaws aside, he thought of her that way - as his, to protect and care for as long it was necessary. He didn't even yell at her when she used his gun during the shootout the other day. Granted, desperate times called for desperate measures, but he was still particular about his pistol. In a world where he depended on humans for so much, his gun was his and his alone. That blind shot she'd made with a weapon she'd never even fired before should have made him jealous (if that was an emotion he had been given).

"No, don't," Kensi whined in her sleep, tugging his legs closer to her chest. "It looks like a sweater. Put your shirt back on."

"So weird." Deeks tried to untangle himself from her grip but she only grasped him tighter, and in a very inappropriate place. He sighed, trying to will her to wake up so she could realize her mistake. Unfortunately, she just smiled in her sleep. Awkward. "Kensi, wake up! Boundaries!"

"What?" She lifted her head and blinked sleepily.

"I'm going to order a moratorium on you touching my junk. Frankly, I think you're a bit too fascinated and it concerns me."

"Your junk?" She glanced down at the positioning of her hand and jumped straight off the bed. "Ugh, gross!"

Deeks rolled the opposite direction off the bed, glad to be free from her grasp at last so he could stretch. "And even more insight into why you're single."

"You're so unpleasant before you've had coffee," she said, shaking her head.

"Guilty. In a perfect world, they would have programmed Companions not to fall prey to such human weaknesses as caffeine. But as it is, I need it."

"And what do you mean, insight into why I'm single?" Kensi grumbled. "Being weirded out by your anatomical correctness is very different from any desire I might have for the real thing. Which, by the way, I may never get a chance to see again thanks to you. I can't even imagine how I would begin to explain my cyborg roommate to a date."

"You say weirded out, I say intrigued." Dragging his feet into the kitchen, he smoothly adjusted the source of conversation in his pants. If they'd gotten off to a better start, this talk would have happened a lot sooner. It was just something that all humans were curious about.

"I say some of your screws are loose." Kensi joined him in the kitchen, snatching one of his apples and taking a big bite of it.

"Quit pretending like you're not curious. This isn't my first rodeo, you know." Deeks filled two cups with ice and coffee, leaving one on the counter. He could sense a mixture of discomfort and relief from her, an odd combination but one that made sense to him. "At least you didn't ask to see it right off the bat. That has happened before."

Kensi's eyes widened, and Deeks smiled. Her eyes were awesome. "That seems rather rude."

"A little ruder than asking if I needed to be plugged in, I suppose."

She sighed and grabbed her coffee. "Fine. You win. Tell me about your secret weapon."

"My secret weapon is my mind."

"Argh," Kensi growled. It was like she was constantly forgetting that he could practically read her mind. She wanted to ask so many questions, just like usual, but apparently thought penis talk was taboo. Her horrified reaction to getting handsy with him in her sleep was just too overdramatic to be real and he knew it. "Okay. What does it look like?"

That was a dumb question. "It looks like a dick."

"I can't believe we are having this conversation..." She shook her head.

"I can't believe you're treating this like it's a big deal." Truthfully, Deeks would rather her ask questions about his simulated manhood than the deeply personal interrogations she'd been giving him lately. Facts were easier than attempting to relive and/or repress feelings with a different human. "I mean, not that it's not a big deal. But it looks normal. And yes, it can get hard. Er. Harder. But not the way you're used to. There is a button, like the ones they have for penile transplant patients."

She furrowed her brow. "Why?"

He shrugged. "You never know when you might need to perform, I guess."

"Oh my God," she snorted. "Is it like an on/off switch?"

"Basically."

"So you're not a virgin?" Kensi asked, raising an eyebrow.

His human was so strange. "Can cyborgs even be virgins? You're asking if Companions can have sex, and the answer is yes. We don't have the natural desires or the happy endings, but yes."

"I need something stronger than coffee," she muttered into her cup. "So what's the point then? Not to minimize your importance in this world or how much fun fucking is, but sex in its most basic form is for procreation."

It definitely had uses other than procreation. "I think I've said before that the idea was for Companions to blend in. Sex is a huge part of society and can be used as a tool, no pun intended, for gathering information necessary for work. Not so much for what  _you_  do, but definitely when I worked with the CIA."

She nodded in understanding. "I can see that in the spy game."

"See? I knew you were capable of having an adult conversation." Deeks rummaged through the kitchen. He didn't want fruit for breakfast, or eggs, or anything healthy for once. He actually wanted a donut, and quietly cursed Kensi's negative influence on his eating habits.

"Okay but if you don't, erm, finish, how do you know when to stop?" She crunched on her apple.

Deeks grunted, giving up on the donut and peeling a banana instead. "Um. When the other person is ready. There's no time limit. You just know."

Kensi cocked her head. "Sorry, but I think that might be a greater weapon than your mind. You're kinda like a sex machine. You can just keep going and going and going..."

"Somehow, I knew that was coming." He almost said no pun intended again, but left it alone. It was time to start getting ready to go to work and figure out what this bad feeling he had was going to turn out to be.

"Also impressive."

"Not really." Looking through his shirts, Deeks held up a blue v-neck and a green button down. "What's impressive are cock pushups."

"Go with the blue." Kensi tried to toss the remainder of her apple in the trash can and missed wide right. "And did you just say cock pushups?"

Pulling his pajama shirt off, he dropped the v-neck and slipped his arms through the sleeves of the button down. "Green it is."

* * *

The ride to the Mission was smooth, as were the morning greetings and jokes. Callen was cool as usual, and Sam was quiet and respectful this time. Deeks didn't dislike the man, who carried himself with an air of confidence that he actually found admirable, though their last encounter may have suggested otherwise. It was just obvious that Sam didn't like anything out of the norm, and Deeks was anything but normal.

"Deeks."

When he turned around, he was met with the big doe eyes of one Miss Nell Jones. Those eyes were full of concern. "What's up Nay Nay?"

"Don't you Nay Nay me," she said, fiercely poking his chest. "How many times did you get shot?"

"Seven," he answered nonchalantly, even though it knew it was a big deal. He was still sore from it.

"And you didn't go get checked out afterwards."

Deeks furrowed his brow. "We're bulletproof, Nell. I've been shot enough times, and every time I've gone back to GenMark for post-traumatic incident checkups. I know how it goes. I'm fine, and Kensi needed to go to the ER. It wasn't a priority. She was the priority."

Nell shook her head. "Just because you have a death wish-"

"I don't have a death wish," he growled quietly.

"Doesn't mean you should neglect your own needs while you're still here," she continued in a hushed tone. "There are things you could have done to make yourself more comfortable. I know you're still hurting, and that can effect your ability to protect her."

Casting a glance over at Kensi, Deeks sucked his bottom lip between his teeth. "I'm not going anywhere, okay? So instead of berating me, why don't you use that computer you call a brain and help me actually track this fucker down?"

She tsked and clicked her tongue in response. "Actually, Hetty and I want to talk to you about that this morning while Kensi goes to get you guys a car."

There was that bad feeling again. Hetty wanted them to travel in a car instead of bikes, he realized, and that was fine. For once, she was being proactive about the safety of her employees. But he didn't understand why Kensi had to go without him.

"She won't be alone. Sam and Callen will go with her," Nell answered his thoughts. Whereas he relied on intuition and sense to know what most people or other Companions were thinking, Nell just straight up knew everything about everyone. Some people found that annoying about her, but it wasn't really her fault.

Deeks could feel Hetty's gaze on all of them from her corner desk, where she apparently sat and stared like it was part of her NCCS designated roles and responsibilities. "Your boss doesn't think she's safe with me?"

"Quite the opposite, and you've got the dents to prove it." She placed her hands on her hips. "But you are basically a moving target right now, and keeping you out of the public eye seems like the smartest thing for all parties involved, don't you think?"

It was hard to disagree with the logic, but impossible to fight his gut. Deeks clenched his jaw and turned his attention from Hetty to Kensi, then back to Nell. "You're starting to sound like your human, Nell."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

She offered him a tense smile. "You just referred to The Chameleon as 'this fucker', Deeks. You're starting to sound like yours, too."

* * *

"So it was absolutely necessary for both of you to tag along for protection detail?"

Sam and Callen answered in unison, "Yes."

Kensi shook her head from the cramped backseat of Sam's old, beat-up Dodge Challenger. The beast had seen better days but thanks to Sam's upkeep, the engine still purred like a lion. "And you're taking advantage of this time to give me the third degree on my new partner and this case, correct?"

The senior partners shared a look and answered together again. "Yes."

"Alright, fire away."

"What happened when Deeks got shot?" Callen asked right off the bat. "Was there like a forcefield, or did the bullets fear that awful hair and just drop to the ground?"

"Ha ha," she faked laughter. It was hard for her to remember exactly what happened when they were shot, but she'd try. It also made her feel a little better knowing that guys like Sam and Callen would be so curious about a Companion's abilities as well. "It's kinda hard to explain, but the bullets hit him. Literally hit him but didn't penetrate. I felt like the wind had been knocked out of me as it happened, but I was fine. Well, except all of these cuts and shit, but that's better than a bullet."

"What happened to Dr. Cranston was awful," Sam chimed in quietly. "Yeah, she was a pain in our asses sometimes, but she was good people. Deserved better."

Kensi frowned. "It could happen to any of us at any time, Sam."

"Yeah, well, shit sure hit the fan when RoboDeeks popped onto the scene," Sam grumbled. "I'm glad that he has been competent enough to keep you alive so far, but if they knew this assignment was going to be this dangerous-"

"What? It should have been given to someone else?" Kensi asked, her voice full of hostility. Dr. Cranston's words about strength played in her head again. "Maybe I was chosen because I'm as tough as fucking nails. Or smarter than the two of you."

Callen shrugged. "No argument there."

Sam side-eyed his partner. "Speak for yourself. And I'm sorry. Yes, you are tough. And smart. And we love you and don't want anything to happen to you, alright?"

"I'm fine." I have Deeks now, she thought, realizing that she already had as much trust in him after one week as she had in Sam and Callen after years of working together. "Besides, you two would not have been able to live with Deeks. He is super neat and wants to eat all of this healthy shit all the time."

"Sounds like he and Sam are a match made in heaven," Callen joked.

Sam cruised into a parking spot at the LA county federal motor pool and curled his lips. "Sounds like you're riding back with Kensi, G."

"That was the plan."

"And she's taking your ass home tonight, too."

Kensi thumped the back of Callen's seat. "You guys are so married. It's adorable. Now quit your bickering and let me out."

* * *

The tiny sedan assigned to her was okay, she guessed. Nothing to brag about really, unlike the exotic cars hidden in the garage under the Mission. The government didn't just throw money around like they used to, though.

"Does he pee and poop?" Callen continued his questioning, sans Sam, in her new NCCS car.

"Yes and yes."

"Pick his nose?"

"Hmm. Not that I've seen, actually. He does have rather big nostrils, maybe he doesn't have to."

Callen smacked on his gum. "What about masturbate?"

"Dude!" Kensi made a disgusted face.

"All guys do it."

"Well, cyborgs don't do that." Thank God, she thought. Walking in on that would be even more awkward than walking in on the mysterious cock pushups Deeks had referred to that morning. Okay, no, that wouldn't be awkward. It would be, as he said, impressive.

Callen's demeanor turned more serious. "Do you trust him?"

She nodded slowly. "I didn't at first, because hello, robot. But as I started to understand his purpose and capabilities, it opened my eyes. It's kinda scary, but I think I trust him with just about anything now."

"Okay," he nodded. "Sam doesn't like change, we all know that. But I trust your judgment, Kens. I have your back, and therefore Deeks' back too. We'll catch this Chameleon guy, as a team."

"We will." Kensi smiled at her team leader. "Motivational speeches aren't your style. That must have been hard for you."

"Terrifying," he agreed with a smirk.

Deeks was waiting for them outside the Mission when they returned. Kensi parked beside Sam's Challenger and hopped out to ask about his impromptu meeting with Hetty. "Good news or bad news?"

He shrugged. "No news. We do have a lead on a possible location for The Chameleon, though. Wanna go check it out?"

A lead? That was old school talk if she'd ever heard it. "Sure, I guess."

Deeks nodded to the car. "Give us a chance to test out your new wheels, at least. Mind if I drive?"

Callen narrowed his eyes for a second before tapping the hood of the car. "Well, I guess my protective detail is over for now. Check in if you find anything? Or better yet, how about we follow you guys?"

"Yeah, go get Sam," Kensi said, tossing Deeks the keys. "We'll wait for you."

Nodding, Callen hauled open the heavy wooden doors in search for his partner. Kensi turned her attention to Deeks, who seemed either distracted or pissed. "What did Hetty say to you? Are you fired already?"

"Just some more information about Granger and The Chameleon." He brought his eyes up to hers and smiled.

Kensi tilted her head, searching his eyes like she'd become accustomed to doing. Something was off about them. The blue was too light, almost aquamarine colored. They didn't usually look that way in the sunlight. A cold chill ran up her spine and she instinctively reached for her weapon, even though she knew it would do no good for her.

"Something wrong?" He asked.

"Yeah. You got his eyes wrong." Swallowing deeply, she forced a brave smile across her lips before his fist connected with her jaw.


	10. Chapter 10

Deeks was in the midst of a staring contest with the infamous Henrietta Lange. If it were anybody else attempting to read her mind, they would probably think she had multitudes of important matters running through her head. Civil disobedience laws, border security, or gun control, just to name a few. In reality, she was thinking about tea. Apparently it had been years since she'd had a decent cup of it, and American tea tasted like boiled shit. Her words, not his.

He hated that he was stuck here with Hetty while Kensi was without him and vulnerable. Sure, it made sense to split them up from a human's point of view. But for him? The longer he was away from her, the less confident he was in her safety. This was no average Companion assignment, and certainly unlike his previous two. Their constant close proximity and near death experiences had sent his protective instincts into overdrive. Right now, those instincts were telling him there was trouble coming and he needed to stop it.

"Sorry, I got held up." Nell broke the stare down with a stack of old papers. "Eric broke the internet again."

" _The_  internet?" Deeks asked.

"Not  _the_ , I should say  _our_  internet," she clarified. "Old building, old electricity, old everything here. It happens about once a month."

"Awesome," he responded sarcastically. "So what's all of this, building floor plans? You guys gonna subcontract me to rewire this place?"

Hetty smiled. "I like his sense of humor."

"No you don't," Deeks called her out. "You think it's too cheeky."

Ever focused, Nell ignored Deeks' attempt to bait Hetty. "These files are from the original investigation into Granger's attempted murder."

He furrowed his brow. "I thought those were all either destroyed or redacted."

"Most were," Hetty confirmed, linking her hands on her desk. "Money is power, and neither the government nor GenMark could let the cat out of the bag about the outrageously expensive agent turned murderer that was running amok throughout the country. But these are not official case files. They're notes and pictures that were taken and never turned in."

"Yours, I'm guessing?" Deeks asked.

Hetty nodded. "My partner and I found Owen that day. Believe me when I say that death would have been his preferred alternative to owing me for the rest of his life, but thankfully he hasn't decided to prematurely end his life just to spite me."

Deeks definitely sided with his boss in the Hetty Lange department. "So you make a habit of just keeping classified evidence tucked away for a rainy day, then?"

"You never know when you might need it. Information is also power, Mr. Deeks."

Now that was something he agreed with her about. Out of the corner of his eye Deeks saw Sam slip into the bullpen alone. Callen must have still been with Kensi. "Empower me then, Ms. Lange."

"It's Hetty, please." The tiny woman began sorting through the papers and photos in conjunction with Nell, handing Deeks a few crime scene photos. "It has been a very long time since I've reviewed these but if my memory serves me correctly, they should prove themselves useful."

The photos were faded but obviously well preserved. Knowing Hetty, she probably had a whole wing of her home devoted to stolen information and illegal artifacts. The first thing that struck him as he flipped through the pictures was the resemblance to the scenes he'd seen a million times on his own tablet. He pointed to a photo of blood splatter on the wall of the inside of a warehouse. "Where was this taken?"

"It was down in what used to be known as the art district. I don't remember the actual location, hence Ms. Jones' recent reorganization of my attic."

Deeks and Nell shuffled through pages while Hetty skimmed through some of her notes. A weird feeling, almost like panic, starting forming in his gut. " _You_  may have forgotten, but he hasn't. These are too similar to his current MO. He's going to lure us and possibly Granger back here. All of these murders have been because he didn't finish the job the first time."

Hetty shook her head. "Possibly, but Owen is not a hard man to access. He's had forty-five years to kill him if he wanted to."

"No," Nell and Deeks spoke in unison. The panicky feeling was getting worse, and his eyes kept shifting towards the door. Kensi should have been back by now.

"They still have a connection," Nell explained. "Even without being in contact with each other, he is still bonded to him."

"That's what has allowed him to keep existing. The memories and feelings from that short time they spent together still live inside him." Deeks tilted his head, seeing Callen walk into the Mission and approach Sam. Kensi was still nowhere to be seen. "Um. For a Companion, losing their human is a feeling that I - it's the most devastating thing that can happen. He's watched ten beings like him go through this torture and it hasn't been enough to satiate him. Nothing may ever be good enough. The biggest satisfaction for him is watching other Companions suffer and knowing that these murders are hurting Granger."

Though the words were coming out of his mouth, it didn't feel like he was the one talking. The room around him was spinning and fuzzy, like he'd been drugged. He managed to get another sentence out. "Where's Kensi?"

"Deeks, what's going on?" Nell reached out and squeezed his shoulder, but he shrugged her off and sprinted in the direction of Sam and Callen. Nell was right on his heels.

"Whoa." Callen's eyes doubled in size, then squinted in confusion.

Sam did a double-take. "I thought you said he was outside, G."

"Shit." He barreled through the agents and didn't even bother with the handles on the doors, using his shoulder to push it open. What was once panic was now just a sense of confusion, like he was lost and couldn't find his way back. Deeks screamed into the open air, though there was no around to answer him. "Kensi!

"It was him," he could hear Callen saying behind him. "Something felt off, I should have seen it."

"There was no way you should have known that, G."

Deeks blinked furiously, trying to regain his focus. "What did he say?"

Callen stepped beside him and shook his head. "Not much, really-"

" _What_  did he  _say_?" Deeks growled.

"That he had a lead on a location for The Chameleon." Callen anxiously scratched his scruffy jaw. "Kensi seemed a little uneasy so I told her that Sam and I would go with you guys. Not  _you guys_ , actually. Sorry, I'm not used to this magic shit."

But this wasn't magic at all. Magic wasn't real. If they were magical, then he would be able to snap his fingers and make her appear in front of them. "I'm going to go find her."

"Not by yourself, you're not," Sam said, resting his hands on his hips. "Even if you think you know where she is, you're walking straight into a trap."

Deeks clenched his jaw and faced the large man eye to eye. "Fine. But you follow my lead."

Nell rushed outside with a slip of paper. "Found it."

"Corner of East 3rd and Traction," Deeks finished her thought, snatching the paper from her hand. Sam raised an eyebrow and dropped his shoulders. "Like I said. You follow my lead."

Something Companions were blessed with was the ability to block out emotions and focus on the task at hand. That gift, however, often vanished when their humans were in peril. Deeks wished he could block out everything at that moment. Instead, all he could feel was pain.

* * *

She could hear him, or at least she thought she could hear him. Most likely, she was dreaming.

Kensi blinked her eyes, tightly walking the line between conscious and comatose. From what little she could actually see, she didn't recognize anything about her location. She was lying unbound on the hard floor, still fully dressed and with her gun holstered at her back. It was dark and humid and smelly and fuck, she hurt.

"Welcome back," a familiar voice spoke. Deeks. And then she remembered how she wound up in this shit hole in the first place. This was definitely not Deeks. Instinctively she dove at him in the darkness, connecting her fist with his extremely hard face. He responded by flinging her on the ground again but didn't engage her in a fist fight.

"You'd be a lot scarier with a different face," she mumbled, grabbing her jaw and wincing. It was already swollen from his first assault and hurt like a motherfucker. "That hair doesn't exactly scream serial killer."

He laughed, and for the first time sounded nothing like her Companion. "I don't rely on my looks to frighten people. Quite the opposite, actually. Everyone fears the cripples or the man with the jagged scar across his face, but never the handsome neighbor or friendly stranger walking his dog."

"I bet you kill the dogs too, right?" She wished he would change his face again, to anything other than his current look. Un-Deeks was making her feel sick to her stomach.

"Please. I'm not a monster." He kneeled beside her on the ground. The closer he was to her, the less he looked like Deeks. Not tall enough, a little thicker, and the eyes. The eyes weren't even close.

Pushing herself up, Kensi sat Indian style and held her aching jaw. "Sorry, but I've seen enough photographic evidence to suggest otherwise."

"And I've seen the same for you," he replied smoothly. "You have an impressive body count for such a young agent. We would have made a good pair in a different day and time. I'm not really looking forward to killing you, actually."

Now it was Kensi's turn to laugh, even though it hurt like hell. "You're so full of shit."

"Yeah, you're right." He smiled. "I can't wait. You two aren't easy to kill. Your Companion is way too smart for the idiot rebels I hired to catch you. He should be here soon, by the way. He's good, very deserving of his place among Owen's favorites."

God, she hoped Deeks was close, and that he wasn't alone. "Is that why you want to kill us? To hurt Granger?"

"This, here, is where it all began. Owen was foolish enough to think I didn't know about his plans to have me terminated. Too much free will, he said." He looked around the room with a wistful expression. "I could feel his pain, feel the life draining out of his body like I was the one who was dying. In a way, I was. Do you know what happens to us when you suffer? We suffer more. It's an indescribable feeling."

"I'm starting to figure that out. Like how when we're happy, you're happier," Kensi replied. "Why choose pain instead of pleasure?"

He shrugged. "It chose me. They made me this way. Pain  _is_  my pleasure. It's their fault that I only feel whole when others are broken. You're used to your Companion. He's different - he enjoys your smile, and your eyes. They made him to love and protect."

"You're jealous," Kensi goaded him.

Un-Deeks scoffed. "He has suffered, though, has he told you? If your Deeks had his way, he would have never met you. He almost died when he lost his old human, the ATF bitch. He wanted to die but good old Owen wouldn't let him. That old bastard has a soft spot for his favorites. Your Companion will finally get his wish today, even though that's not what he wants anymore."

Kensi rolled her eyes. Not only was this thing a killer, he was just plain unlikeable, too. "You're like the needy redheaded stepchild. Nobody loves the killer Companion, so you want to make everyone pay for it. It's pathetic. You can't wait for Deeks to watch me die, right? Well, I can't wait for Deeks to kill your sorry ass."

The Chameleon nodded appreciatively, pulling a pistol out of his pocket. He rested it in his knee, pointed in her direction. "I guess we'll just have to wait and see who wins, won't we?"

She stuffed her hands in the pockets of her hoodie and waited. Unlike with Deeks, Kensi had no trouble believing this creature kneeling in front of her was less than human. She closed her eyes and tried to communicate with Deeks, like she had been able to the other day when they were being shot at. Maybe he was right, and it was all in her head. She heard nothing back from him.

* * *

Deeks anxiously tapped his foot and beat his hands on the seat in front of him, willing Sam to go maybe a few miles over the speed limit faster. He wasn't sure how "follow my lead" turned into him being stuffed in the backseat of Sam's Challenger, but that's where he was.

"Is the drum solo necessary, Deeks?"

"That depends, is it making you drive any faster?"

Sam curled his lips and pushed his foot on the pedal harder.

"Nice to see you two getting along and working so well together."

"Shut up, G."

"There." Deeks pointed through the gap between Sam and his window at an oddly shaped corner warehouse that looked like it hadn't been used in...well, forty-five years. "Let me out. You two hang back."

"This guy." Sam jabbed his thumb in Deeks' direction and shook his head. "No."

"Yes," Deeks argued. "You two are expendable to him, but not to Kensi. I can't let you guys die on her, too. You're safer if you don't go in first."

Callen swung his door open, allowing Deeks to hop out of the car. "And how do we know when you need backup? We didn't grab ear pieces before we left and I can't speak for Sam, but I'm not psychic like you are."

Deeks shrugged. "Use your instincts."

"Our instincts?"

"Or just as a general rule, if you hear gunshots," Deeks reasoned, unholstering his weapon. As he walked around the side of the building, he could hear Sam muttering something like "he's lucky he's bulletproof." But he wasn't focused on Sam or Callen. His full attention was back on Kensi, who he could feel was close and scared but very much alive.

Deeks nudged a side door open with his foot and peered inside, feeling for a light switch. When he flipped it, no lights came on. Of course. "Really?"

Sam had been right about one thing - he was walking right into a trap, but he had no other choice. If he had to, he would walk through a wall of fire or a firing line to reach her. Luckily there was no fire or bullet spray this time, only hallways and doors and darkness. Of course the fucker couldn't make it easy to find them.

The door closed behind him, cutting off the sunshine and his main light source. Closing his eyes, he tried to use his mind to lead him in the right direction. At every door he stopped and concentrated, but every room he came upon was empty. He reached a dead end of the hallway and without even thinking about it, turned left. The fact that this warehouse had so many offices and storage rooms was really starting to piss him off.

 _"You're close,"_  he heard Kensi tell him. Deeks smiled proudly. Her thoughts were becoming clearer in his mind, as if they were his own. The idea that she was trying to communicate with him in their other-worldly type fashion boosted his strength.

 _Closer, closer, closer..._  He stopped beside a room,  _the_  room, and listened. All was quiet from the outside but that didn't mean that The Chameleon wasn't sitting on the other side with a .40 pointed at Kensi. That much he knew for sure. He exhaled and slammed his foot into the door, storming in with his gun raised. "Kensi, stand up and move back."

This was his first time meeting this monster face to face. The sight of himself, or his temporary twin really, sitting on the floor in front of Kensi was something he wasn't prepared for. He watched as the poser smiled at him but kept his gun aimed at his human, who was sitting perfectly still. "Well, now it's a party."

"Kensi," Deeks repeated, licking his lips. "Get behind me."

 _"I'm fine, Deeks,"_  she thought.  _"But that's not such a good idea."_  For once Kensi was taking the quiet approach and thinking instead of speaking, but he understood and appreciated why. He'd feel a lot better if she would get the hell away from the gun pointed at her, though.

The Chameleon tsked and shook his head. It was hard for Deeks to anticipate his thoughts and actions - the old Companion was too experienced to leave himself vulnerable. "She's too smart for that. If she moves, I shoot her. You try to shield her, I'll shoot her."

"Well, it appears we're at an impasse here, so how about you just let her go?" Deeks asked, keeping a comfortable distance from them both. "Think about it. She's just an agent, those are a dime a dozen. I'm the one you really want, right?"

He turned towards Kensi, who maintained a steely expression. "I think your Companion just devalued you, did you hear that? Does he really think that will work?"

Kensi shrugged. "I dunno. Did it?"

"It didn't," Deeks answered, twisting his lips. He tried to focus on Kensi's demeanor - she was calmer than he expected, given that she was basically stuck in place with a psycho's gun pointed at her. Maybe she had a blind faith in him that even he didn't possess, or some sort of hat trick that would take them all by surprise. He held his hands up to surrender and gently placed his weapon on the ground. "How about we make a deal here then, yeah?"

More tsking. "It seems like you might still have that death wish after all. The fact that I'd be doing you a favor is a little disappointing, but your desperation to keep your human safe more than makes up for it."

Deeks shook his head. "I'm not desperate, just prepared," he lied, thankful that the bastard in front of him didn't have the same intuition he did. At this point, he was just making shit up as he went along. He knew that Nell had called Granger after they left to tell him to come to this location, but The Chameleon didn't. "You can have me without a fight. Let Kensi go and she'll hand deliver Granger to you. A life for a life. But I've already told her unit at NCCS if we both die to cover it up and say we ran off to get away from your pursuits. Your greatest achievement will quickly become your greatest disappointment."

"I don't want to kill Owen. I want to kill  _her_."

"Why?" Deeks asked, glancing at his partner on the floor. "Unless…Kensi, are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"He doesn't think he can go through with it," Kensi completed his thought. "Just like the first time."

Deeks nodded his agreement, though he thought it wasn't very wise for them to taunt a killer. "You're scared of what will happen. Scared of the pain that comes with it. You want to kill but take the chickenshit way out of it by killing people you don't have feelings for."

The Chameleon steadied the aim of his gun on Kensi and clenched his jaw. "Bold talk for someone who's about to die."

"Maybe." Deeks tilted his head. "But I've got two NCCS agents waiting outside the building that are here to back me up. One gunshot and they'll be on your ass like white on rice. You think I'm protective of her? You've never met these guys. I know you think you've laid this little trap here for me, but you're the one who's outnumbered. Do what you want to me. Let her go."

 _"What the fuck, Deeks?"_  Kensi thought.  _"This is suicide."_  But Deeks swallowed the emotions he could feel pouring through her and stepped closer.  _It's a risk I'm willing to take_ , he thought. She closed her eyes and dropped her head, and he knew that she'd heard him.

The not-so Deeks in front of him pursed his lips. "You do actually make a good point about being outnumbered."

Before Deeks could ask if they had a deal, the sound of a gunshot punched him in his gut. Kensi was propelled backwards by the impact, her head slamming onto the concrete floor as the force of the bullet overpowered her body. He'd shot her. The motherfucker shot her.

He could hear Kensi gasping for air just as much as he could feel it in his chest, but it wasn't as painful as he expected it to be. It was almost as if he had been shot - it hurt like hell but wasn't debilitating. She groaned and curled into a ball on the floor, her long dark hair covering her face and her arms shielding her abdomen. She was still alive, and that was all that mattered.

And just like when he had taken bullets in the past, this gunshot set his insides aflame. Deeks immediately lunged for his nemesis' face, jamming his thumbs into the other cyborg's eye sockets. It wouldn't kill him but it would hurt like hell and temporarily blind him. He squeezed and squeezed but the bastard fought back, pushing against Deeks until he slammed his already sore back into a pipe that was protruding from the old walls. Deeks reached for the gun, grabbing and slamming it repeatedly into the pipe until it fell to the ground. He kicked it and it slid across the floor, almost bumping into Kensi's foot.

He angrily shoved his assailant away from him. The Chameleon wiped his eyes and smiled sadistically. "Wow, you're still fighting. Clearly I should have let you two bond longer. You're not a shrieking pile of shit on the floor like the others."

Worried that he would try to attack Kensi again, Deeks kept moving, making sure that the attention was on him and not her. "Obviously you didn't take the time to get to know Kensi Blye before deciding she would be a good prospect for your little house of horrors here. She's as stone cold as they come."

"And therefore, so are you." The Chameleon glanced back at Kensi, who was still moaning softly, and snuck his hand in his pocket. "I've been watching you for a while. In hindsight I should have chosen you first. You and that ATF agent were a much better pair. What was her name again?"

"Nice try," Deeks sneered. He needed Sam and Callen to make good on their word and burst in to take Kensi to safety. It was reassuring that she was still moving ever so slightly on the floor. He kept his eyes glued to the syringe appearing before him. The evil Companion in front of him was a touch shorter but heavier, making any hand to hand action a fairly even match. Without help, Deeks would have to rely on sheer willpower to win this fight. "Alright. You've got, I'd say, about two minutes to kill me, fucker. Bring it."

Deeks swung and connected his fist on the other cyborg's jaw but it barely phased him. He had the disadvantage of having his back to the wall, and The Chameleon rammed his shoulder into his chest until he was pinned up against it. Deeks kneed and elbowed and clawed but their strength was just too similar for him to take control. He was stuck, fighting a losing battle against the syringe inching towards his mouth. Sick fuck, Kensi had called this guy. She was so, so right.

 _Kensi_ , he pleaded.  _I need whatever trick you might have tucked away and I need it now_. Movement against the other wall caught his attention but he didn't dare take his eyes off the syringe. He could hold him off longer, hopefully long enough for Sam and Callen to figure out where the hell they were in this damn maze.

Next thing he knew, Kensi was on her feet. That's when he realized she wasn't holding some secret trick up her sleeve to surprise them all.  _She_  was the secret trick. A grimace covered her face but she charged ahead at full speed, kicking her foot as hard as she could muster. She hit the other Companion square between the legs. His eyes widened in pain as he softened his grip, allowing Deeks to wrestle the syringe out of his hands.

Kensi kicked him again and grabbed him by the back of his head, yanking him to the ground by his hair. It happened so quickly that Deeks didn't even question his decision to fall on him and dig his knee into the cyborg's chest, hovering the syringe over his mouth until he saw the look of fear in his eyes. It was his own face he saw twisting in horror. The roles were reversed but he couldn't knowingly kill one of his own, no matter how much he deserved it.

Deeks flung the syringe away from them and dug his knee in deeper. "Are you okay, Kensi?" He asked, keeping his eyes trained on The Chameleon.

"Fan-fucking-tastic," she replied painfully.

He chuckled. It was more of an anxious laughter, but seeing his human upright and breathing after being shot gave him new life. "Did you bring the cuffs too, Old School?"

Holding her ribs with one hand, Kensi used the other to reach into her hoodie pocket. She pulled a pair of old metal cuffs out and tossed them at Deeks. "You can do the honors."

"Federal agents!" He heard Sam shout from the hallway as he inched his Glock around the open door frame.

"We're good, guys!" Deeks shouted, then roughly turned The Chameleon onto his stomach and slipped the hand cuffs on his wrists. He eyed Kensi. She was definitely in pain and trying to hide it.

Callen moved in first and immediately ran to Kensi. "You hurt?"

"She took a .40 caliber at close range, needs x-rays. Probably has a cracked rib," Deeks answered. He already knew Kensi well enough to predict she would try to downplay her injuries.

"What?!"

She tried to shrug and grimaced. "I'm wearing a vest," she said, unzipping her jacket to show them the old NCIS vest she'd pulled out of storage. "And I don't ever want to hear anybody joking on my hoodies again after this. He never even suspected it was under here."

Deeks dragged the cuffed Companion to his feet and threw him in Sam's direction. "Will you find a very uncomfortable place for him until Granger gets here?"

"He's coming?" The Chameleon struggled against his restraints, but Sam shoved him towards the door.

"Shut up," Sam grumbled. He was the biggest man in the room and pushed the Companion around with ease. "The only thing worse than Deeks' haircut is Deeks' haircut on a freaking psychopath. Now get the hell on."

Now that the immediate threat was neutralized, Deeks could feel Kensi's eyes burning through him. This was a bigger ordeal for her than she was letting on. She was scared and relieved and hurting but trying to keep it together. He nodded to Callen. "Go on, we're right behind you."

Callen nodded back and headed out behind Sam. Before Deeks could ask how she was doing, she answered his question. "I'm fine."

He walked to her and ran a thumb gently along the large bruise forming on her jaw and she cringed. The cuts from the broken glass just a couple of days ago still hadn't healed yet, either. "Is fine like, Kensi code for not fine? Cause I'm pretty sure you're not fine."

"Fine means I will be fine even if I'm less than fine at this very second," she argued weakly, holding her midsection. "I think I know what it feels like to be you now, though. And you were right - getting shot hurts."

"Looks like you're bulletproof after all." It was hard to smile but he forced one anyway for her sake. She was a ball of emotions right now and so was he. The Chameleon was why he was paired with Kensi in the first place, and he was now handcuffed and hopefully no longer a threat to anyone. That should have been completely satisfying and thrilling, but it reminded him that this killer was the entire reason he was even still alive. He thought he could never bond again but he was wrong. How many others had made the same mistake and never had the chance to find out? And how could he and Kensi exist normally together after this? In all of his years as a Companion, this was by far the most traumatic experience he'd gone through with one of his humans.

The right words to say were lost on him, so Deeks tried his best to convey what he thought she was feeling and what she needed. He pulled her into a hug, wrapping his arms around her shoulders and resting his lips on her temple. Kensi relaxed into the embrace, her arms trembling as she hesitantly wrapped them around his waist. "I'm just really glad you're alive," he whispered, squeezing her gently. She nodded, and squeezed harder.


	11. Chapter 11

Kensi couldn't think of a time when she'd seen someone, human or otherwise, sitting in a pair of handcuffs. Very rarely were true arrests made anymore, with a trial and publicity like there used to be. Everything she knew about the Judicial Branch of the US, she didn't learn from experience. High school government classes, FLETC, and classic novels like  _To Kill a Mockingbird_  gave her more insight into the way the system was supposed to work than anything she might have learned on the job. Trials were always closed now. In most cases, deadly force was considered to be justified. She went on a date with a lawyer once but had never even stepped foot into a courtroom.

As she perched uncomfortably on a curb on Traction Avenue, she stared at a monster she knew would never know the benefit of the American justice system. And for once, she was happy about it. Deeks, Sam, and Callen had the rogue Companion known as The Chameleon surrounded, waiting for his judge, jury, and executioner to show up. The two NCCS agents and her own Companion kept casting glances her way as she sat in quiet contemplation. Only Deeks knew what she was actually thinking about.

It hurt to breathe. It hurt to smile. It hurt to think. But she was alive, when for the third time in two weeks she shouldn't have been. The first two times, Deeks saved her. This time, she returned the favor. He'd been able to speak to her, and she to him, without ever using words or even touching each other. Just being in close proximity had been enough for them to take advantage of their superhuman connection. It was terrifying and thrilling at the same time, like Deeks was awakening some spirit that existed within her all this time without her knowledge. A spirit that wouldn't stop fighting until there was nothing left to fight for.

Unfortunately, that spirit must have gone back into hibernation again. All she wanted to do now was crawl into her bed, a bed that for the past two days wasn't just hers anymore. That was a problem she didn't even care about right now.

A sleek black sedan parked right beside her, obstructing her view of everyone else. Owen Granger slid out of the driver's seat and approached her, taking her by surprise. He extended his hand, pulling her to her feet. "Ms. Blye."

"Granger," she returned, wincing in pain as she straightened her back. "Took you long enough."

"Deeks has been a bad influence on you," he remarked with a tight smile. "You did a good job, today. Thank you."

Kensi nodded numbly, shocked that this crotchety old man not only came to her first, but came to thank her. Maybe there was more depth to him than she had originally thought. When she didn't respond, he grunted and crossed the street towards the rest of the crowd. That was the Granger she remembered.

She walked gingerly across the street behind him, not wanting to be left out of the showdown that would undoubtedly occur between the two arch-enemies. By now The Chameleon had let his given face fade back into place and, thank God, no longer looked like Deeks. He looked like…nobody, really. Nothing remarkable about his features at all, like someone you would pass by on the streets and never think twice about. She was thankful for the change and tried to burn the image of  _that_  face in her mind to replace the one of her Companion. While she knew that the real Deeks would not hurt her, it was still a disturbing mental image to hold on to - being taunted and shot by someone with whom you shared a home/bed.

As Granger stood before his former Companion, there were no sparks or screams or blows. Sam pulled him to his feet so they could see eye to crazy fucking eye, and Deeks moved to her side. His fingers brushed against her back and she could feel him silently tugging her towards him, like he didn't want her to see the interaction about to take place. She resisted him. Curiosity and the need for closure kept her feet planted to the street.

"Marcel," Granger simply said.

The Chameleon smiled. "Owen."

Granger placed a hand on his shoulder, guiding him towards the black car. "I'm going to enjoy watching you die."

The smile remained on Marcel's face. "Then so will I."

* * *

"Your nurse doesn't like me."

Kensi squirmed on the examination table. "Why do you say that?"

"Maybe because this is the second time this week I've brought you to the ER?" Deeks sighed. "Also, a social worker tried to corner me and I had to flash my nifty new NCCS badge and explain what you do for a living to get her to back off. I sent her to room 228. I have a feeling that family could use her services more than you can."

"Aw, using your powers for good," she said with a smile. "How human of you."

He frowned. "Humans hurt each other. With the rare exception, like today, Companions help people. You should say how Companion of me, or how cyborg of me."

"Fine."

"How superhuman of me."

"You've made your point," she snapped. "How long does it take to get fucking x-ray results?"

"You're lucky you even have a place to sit while you wait." Deeks groaned. "Shit."

"What now?"

"You'll see."

Kensi waited patiently, breathing slowly. Some ibuprofen or something would be great about now, but that would require being seen by medical personnel for more than two seconds at a time. A tiny shadow formed on her privacy curtain, and a bobbed haircut poked around cautiously. "Ah, good. I found you."

As Hetty walked past him, Deeks gave Kensi a pointed look.  _See what I mean_ , he was saying with his eyes. She scowled, willing him to behave himself. "Hetty. What are you doing here?"

She tilted her head. "One of my employees is in the hospital. Where else should I be?"

"She's not so much  _in_  the hospital as  _at_  the hospital," Deeks corrected. "And going home as soon as they determine how severe her broken rib is."

Kensi rolled her eyes. "You're not a doctor, Deeks."

"You don't know that," he replied with a smile.

Hetty looked back and forth between them. "Mr. Deeks, would you mind giving us a moment?"

"I do mind, actually," he protested. "The last time you split us up, she got kidnapped and almost died. Did you forget already? It was just this morning."

Kensi stifled a laugh at the perturbed look on Hetty's face. The proud woman wasn't used to being talked down to. "I will personally filet anyone who lays a finger on her," Hetty reassured him.

Deeks looked unconvinced but pushed himself out of his plastic chair. "Alright."

"You know he'll still know what we're talking about, right?"

Hetty shook her head. "He respects your privacy, I believe. Does he not?"

"He does."

"How are you, Kensi?" Hetty placed a wrinkled hand on hers. "Not physically, I can see that. This has been a challenging few weeks for you. I worry about your ability to manage all of this."

"I manage just fine." Kensi wrapped an arm around her waist. "Deeks helps. He can be a pain in the ass, but I think that maybe he keeps me on even ground somehow. I can't really explain it yet. I'm still trying to figure it out myself."

"So this is something you would like to continue, then?"

Kensi frowned. "What do you mean? Two weeks ago I didn't have a choice in the matter and now all of a sudden, I do?"

"Two weeks ago, we had a serial killer on the loose and Deeks had one job to do - stop him." Hetty attempted to soften her face. "Which he did. You did. He had requested retirement before this assignment."

"I know, but that's not what he wants anymore," she argued. "You have a Companion, you know how this works. They don't just hop from job to job, they bond to us. They need us."

Hetty nodded. "I understand that. But you need to know that Deeks fulfilled his mission, and Granger would feel obligated to grant him this request if that's what he still wishes to do. Not saying it will happen, I just want you to prepare yourself in case it does."

Kensi's heart sank. That empty feeling, the one she remembered Deeks having, filled her heart and hurt her soul. That wasn't what he wanted anymore, she told herself. She knew him now. He had saved her, and now she had saved him. They'd grown beyond the job and into some sort of indescribable  _thing_. It can't be what he wants. If it was, then maybe she didn't know him at all.

* * *

"You're drooling."

Kensi blinked and wiped her mouth, focusing her blurry vision on the clock in her new car. 1:47 A.M. She'd dozed off on the way home from the hospital. Drugs were bad. Hospitals were really bad and took way, way, way too long. If Sam and Callen hadn't stopped by with a big ass bowl of pasta, she would have probably starved to death waiting to be released.

"Earth to Kensi," Deeks spoke to her again. She turned to stare at him with wide eyes. He was smiling like he wasn't about to tell her that this would be their last day working and eating and bickering together. "You're kinda hard for me to figure out right now. How much oxycodone did they give you?"

Fumbling in her lap, she found her bottle of pills and squinted at the label. "Um. Enough. Do I have to take these? I think they make me loopy. And drool."

Even in the dark she could see his brows furrow. "I already told you about the drooling. And yes, you need to take them. Shallow breathing from the pain could lead to pneumonia, so don't be stubborn about it. Come on, let's get you to bed."

"I need a shower."

"Then let's get you a shower first."

Fuck these pills, they were making her emotional. "I need you to not die, too. Okay? I'm going to be selfish and say you can't come in and turn everything in my life upside down and then just go gas yourself."

"Maybe we should risk the pneumonia. What in the actual fuck are you talking about?"

She closed her eyes and tried to open her cloudy mind so she could make some damn sense. A deep breath helped some, even though her medicine didn't make the pain go away completely. "Hetty...said Granger..."

"Okay." Deeks placed a hand over hers and the warm strength from it immediately started calming her. "Can we talk about this inside? I really have to pee and you have drool crusted on your face."

She snorted. "I think you pee more than I do." Deeks opened the driver's door and walked to her side, unbuckling her seatbelt and helping her out of the car. "Oh, you're such a gentleman," she slurred.

"Still not human, Kensi," he reminded her as she leaned into him for support.

"I know." She wrapped an arm around his waist. "You're so hard."

"You say that like it's a bad thing. If I actually were a human it'd probably make my night to have you purring that in my ear." Deeks unlocked the door and flipped the lights on, locking it again behind him and setting her little dragon alarm as usual.

She kept her head on his shoulder, letting him guide her through her home.  _We need a second bathroom_ , she felt him think, and her eyes shot open wide. "Did you just think that we need another bathroom?"

"You don't agree? I mean, we both need to shower and pee so at this rate it'll be another twenty minutes before bed. Another bathroom would be nice right about now. A bigger place overall would be nice, actually. This hole clearly isn't meant for two people."

"You say  _we_  like this isn't temporary," she murmured. They were in the bathroom now, and she had to stand on her own again so he could turn the hot water on. The way he looked at her reinforced her original idea that their arrangement was anything but temporary.

Deeks unzipped her hoodie and tossed it into the hamper. "Are you still threatening to take me back for a new and improved model?"

"I still have that option?" Kensi joked weakly.

"No, you don't." He untangled her ponytail from the band keeping it all together, sending a mess of curls cascading down her back. "I'm a simple creature who does what I'm told to do. You're mine, and I'm yours now. I don't care what Hetty or Granger or Pope Nicholas VII said to you. You're not getting rid of me that easily."

"I think you're a lot more complex than you give yourself credit for," she said with a relieved smile. That she was panicking so much over possibly losing someone (something?) she'd known for less than a month still surprised her, but everything was a surprise to her now. She meant what she'd said about him turning her world upside down. It was scary, but she didn't think she wanted to be right side up again. "So what now?"

"Now we go on like normal." He felt the water temperature and switched the shower on. "Go to work, stop bad guys, save the country from death and destruction. Same as usual."

"This is not normal."

"Normal is relative," he responded. "Normal is what you make it."

Maybe she could get used to normal meaning sharing a living space with someone else, someone who most likely would be more devoted to her than any real human would ever be. And if he was that committed to her, she owed it to him to do the same. "Okay. New normal, starting now."

"Okay."

Kensi kicked her boots and socks off, and reached for the button of her pants before reconsidering stripping in front of Deeks. "Um."

He tilted his head, and yeah, he knew what she was thinking. "Well, this bonding session has been great, but if you don't hurry up and get in the shower I'm going to have to pee right in front of you."

"Yeah, yeah, I'm pretty sure I'm moving in super slow motion, so you might just wanna go piss on a bush outside. I'm sure Ms. Robinson will enjoy the middle of the night peep show." She curled up the hem of her shirt and winced. This was going to be difficult and possibly awkward. "Um, don't take this the wrong way, but I need you to help take my shirt off."

"Don't take this the wrong way," he said, gently easing her tee shirt over her head and down her arms. "But I've seen plenty of boobs before."

Of course he had. Companion by day, pimp by night. At least she could count on him to lighten the mood. "Don't take this the wrong way, but get the fuck out."

* * *

Enjoy the maid, Hetty had said to her the first day she brought Deeks home. Kensi didn't realize at the time how true of a statement that would be. He cooked, he cleaned, did laundry, took out the trash, and apparently even snuck a camisole and pajama shorts into the bathroom for her to wear after her shower. It made her feel like her treatment of him after he'd been shot was a little lacking in comparison. Like, she could have at least made him breakfast or something as a way of saying "thank you for saving my life...again." She could be a real shithead sometimes.

Kensi sat on her bed and attempted to pull her hair back, waiting for the inevitable bed sharing conversation to take place. If she was being honest with herself, which this oxycodone was pretty good at forcing her to do, she didn't mind sharing a bed with Deeks. It was oddly comforting, and she hadn't had a single nightmare the last two nights.

There were certain things about his non-human status that were nice. For example, what heterosexual man would be fine sharing a bed platonically with her? Not to pat herself on the back or anything, but she was hot. Nice face, good body, and only a little scary. So, maybe the reason Deeks was easy for her to live with was because he wasn't human. Or maybe he was gay. Did cyborgs even have sexual preferences, or true gender identification?

"I swear, all you humans think about is sex," Deeks muttered, walking in with flannel pants and a towel over his head.

"That is not true!" Kensi frowned, giving up on her hair. "I was thinking about the opposite of sex. The lack of sex, if you will."

"You just had a near death experience, and you're trying to figure out if cyborgs have sexual identities. You can blame that on your drugs, but that won't work with me." He fluffed his hair with the towel, leaving it a hot mess of blond spikes, before hanging his towel on a door hook that definitely wasn't there before he moved in. "Also, you think about sex about 10 times a day."

"Well, that's about 90 times less than most other people."

"Fair enough." Deeks turned the lights off and sat on the bed with her. "You're still hurting."

"Uncomfortable is more like it," she said with a yawn, grabbing her jaw. "Yeah, like that. Not good."

Deeks eyed her and sighed, twisting his lips. "Come here. But don't make it weird."

Weird, why would she make it weird? Oh yeah, because she was wonderfully awkward and inappropriate. She pointed to his bare chest and crazy hair. "You going to bed like that?"

"Didn't I just tell you to not make it weird?" Crawling up the bed, he pulled the covers back and climbed in. His eyes were basically telling her to quit looking at him like a dumbass and let him try to help her. "Are you going to make me say it?"

"No," she sighed. If anyone had told her a year ago that she'd wind up snuggling with a damn robot, she would have had them shipped off to one of those special homes in Wyoming where free thinkers were allowed to be with their own kind. Maybe she needed to take that trip herself, because here she was, curling into the nook between his arm and chest. It was warm, just like he always was, and smelled really nice and clean.

"Did you just sniff me?"

"No," she lied. "What kind of freak do you think I am?"

"I'm not answering that question." Deeks closed his eyes, and she did the same. Sneaking his arm under her, he pulled her up flush against his side. That took most of the weight and pressure off of her sore rib, which was an immediate relief. Of course, there were the automatic weird sensations that coursed through her body when her natural skin rested against his synthetic. The odd combination of thoughts and feelings that filled her mind and confused her senses was overwhelming this time. This was the most skin to skin contact they'd managed to have so far.

Kensi tried to block his thoughts out, just focusing on breathing and the strange way his skin was baby soft but felt as hard as metal underneath. Almost like an exoskeleton, but not. And he had no body hair, which she had zero complaints about at all. Her physiological pondering distracted her enough to clear the jumble of his and her thoughts and just allowed her to relax. The discomfort was starting to subside, and she realized his breathing now matched hers perfectly. It was as if he was absorbing her pain. She took a deep breath, and he did the same. It didn't hurt anymore. That was exactly what he was doing.

"Does it hurt you?" Kensi asked quietly.

Deeks shrugged his free shoulder. "Some. You're not hurting that much so it's not too bad."

"You've had worse, I'm guessing?"

"Much. Jess had endometriosis, actually, and sometimes would hurt so badly that she could barely go to work. I did something similar to this for her at times." Though her eyes were still closed, she could feel him smile. "I don't know how girls do it. Dave used to say something like, never trust anything that bleeds for five days straight and doesn't die."

"Rather caveman-like of him." This time when he mentioned Jess, she didn't feel sad and empty. He was healing, and that made her happy.

"No shit."

Kensi took a deep breath and snuggled closer, resting her arm across his waist. Her thumb slid into a dip in his skin, probably one of his many bullet wounds.  _Non-human_ , she reminded herself. Non-human that can resist bullets and absorb pain and read minds, one who was made to do all of those things for everybody but himself. "The Chameleon said you were made to love and protect."

"I suppose that's true."

"And you loved her?" Kensi asked. "Because she loved you first?"

He tensed, so she tensed. She relaxed, so he relaxed. "Yes. But it wasn't like fantasy engagement or naming imaginary tiny mutant assassins love. It's just different."

She was about to cross an imaginary line, but really, this was like pillow talk without the sex so what the hell. "But you made love to her, too, right?"

"You've officially passed your sex thought quota for the day."

"Deeks." Her voice was soft yet firm. "I'm trying to understood you and your emotions and where the hell they even come from. Help me out a little here."

She found her breathing becoming a little irregular, like he stopped for a second and she was trying to compensate.  _What the fuck kind of weird symbiosis had she gotten herself into here?_

"Symbiosis, that's a good description," he said as her breathing evened back out again. He was back on track with her and back in her head again. "For what it was like, I mean. Because obviously humans and Companions are different organisms. We look and sometimes act the same, but you can exist on your own. Whereas for us, you become our entire world. So much so that some memories that I thought I had are lost, because they weren't even my own. Very, very good memories."

Kensi took that answer as a yes. "So what was it like? Must be kinda tricky, cause if you're having an off night in the sack you can read their mind and know just how bad you are. Or maybe, it's actually helpful cause then you like...you  _know_  when you're doing it right."

Deeks laughed. That feeling was nice. "You are without a doubt the classiest chick I've ever shared a bed with. Are you trying to get in my pants?"

Now it was her turn to laugh, but it was more painful than when he did it. "Listening to you talk, if I wanted to, you wouldn't have much of a choice. Slow your roll, loverboy. Besides, you're obviously still damaged. No offense."

"I'm getting better everyday."  _Thanks to you_ , he didn't say. "But I appreciate your ability to keep your hands off of my magical penis. When you're awake anyway."

"All of a sudden it's magical? I thought it was no big deal."

"It's easier to make jokes," he said, but she already knew that. Humor as a defense mechanism, one of his many human qualities. "The truth is, sex is very intense for me. I didn't enjoy it with strangers. It is too intimate to literally, in every way possible, be inside someone that you don't really care about."

Funny, Kensi never thought about it that way. She found sex with strangers to be easier because she could detach herself from any feelings and just enjoy it for what it was. Though she did remember what it was like to be with someone she loved, to sometimes be so overwhelmed that she'd have to wipe tears from her eyes when it was over. That had been a long time ago, a very long time ago. Before NCCS or partners or Companions, a completely different life from the one everyone close to her knew about now. "I loved someone once, too," she offered. "The fantasy engagement, baby name kind of love. But I was young and naive and he was deep and troubled. It was destined to fail, and it did."

"I'm sorry." He rubbed his thumb along her arm, and she felt his words in her gut.

"I'm sorry that you lost a part of yourself," she said, twisting her lips. "And I'm sorry that most likely it will happen to you again."

"You don't know that," he tried to play it off like it wasn't true and didn't hurt like hell. "LA could get hit with an atomic bomb tomorrow. Pretty sure I can't survive that."

"Can we not say tomorrow? It's been a hell of a week already. How about next year?"

"Okay, fine, next year."

"Besides," she smirked. "I need to see these infamous cock pushups before I die. Nuclear bombs will have to wait."

"Really? Your count is up to twelve now, by the way."

"What can I say?" Kensi sighed sleepily. "I am human, after all."

"Yes, yes you are. Very much so." He chuckled, the soft laughter in his chest echoing in her ear. "You ready to roll over now?"

 _Not really_. This was comforting and peaceful, feelings she could certainly get used to. "Just a little while longer."

"That's cool."

Kensi let the steady thump of his perfectly rhythmic heartbeat lull her to sleep while a soft kiss to the crown of her head guaranteed her sleep would be filled with sweet dreams and happy memories instead of any of the pain she'd encountered. Her new normal, maybe.


	12. Epilogue

"He's taking too long."

Kensi gave Sam a stern look while Callen clucked his tongue and grinned. Those two were having way too much fun with Deeks' status as the newbie within the group, assigning him with most of the menial tasks and errands on a daily basis. Of course Deeks knew exactly what they were doing, but he didn't mind at all. He'd been in this game for thirty-five years. Being treated like the young buck was like taking a step back in time.

"I don't know why you're being so anxious, Sam." Callen popped his gum and playfully shoved his, ahem, partner's shoulder. "You know he found the shittiest food truck around just to piss you off, right?"

"Give him a little more credit than that," Kensi chided. "And really, he just doesn't have that great of taste in food."

"You know I can hear all of you, right?" Deeks butted in grumpily through their ear pieces. Kensi grinned and shook her head. Even without the wireless communication system, she was sure he would have had a good idea of what they were saying about him. Then her grin widened. She could feel him close by, even though Sam and Callen couldn't see him. Sure enough, he was sneaking up behind them all. The senior partners had no idea he was there until he spoke. "Missed me?"

"Shhhh, dammit Deeks," Sam growled, throwing his hands up in the air. "Do that again and I'll shoot you."

"Eh," Deeks replied with a nonchalant shrug, handing out drinks and bags of food. "Kensi, breakfast taco in a waffle, extra bacon."

She tore into her bag excitedly. "Sweet."

"Don't eat mine too, okay Miss Piggy?" Deeks snorted like a pig at her scowl. "For Sam, a protein shake. And I already told your shrimp curry guy that if he sold out again today without saving you a bowl that I'd report him to the health department."

Sam had been sucking the shake through his straw, but paused to tilt his head quizzically. "Does he  _need_  to be reported to the health department?"

"No..." Deeks answered, though it sounded more like a question. He handed Callen a bag and a book. "Breakfast burger with the egg over easy, because who doesn't love a little Salmonella in the morning? And also, a baby name book."

"Um." Callen frowned, looking at the well worn paperback. "I'm not pregnant, Deeks."

"Still waiting for that technology to be invented?" Kensi teased.

"No," Sam responded quickly. "Hell no."

"I, uh," Deeks pointed to the book, "I found it on the street on the way back here. Something told me it was meant for you."

Callen flipped through the pages quickly. "Some of the names are highlighted. Recently."

"Huh. Interesting." Kensi stared at Deeks pointedly, but he ignored her. He was only trying to help her friend in his lifelong quest for answers about his family and identity, but he could be a little less obvious about it. Deeks pulled out a stack of flyers he'd tucked under his armpit. "And for me, apartment listings."

Sam raised an eyebrow. "Trouble in paradise already?"

"Kensi doesn't knock," he answered distractedly.

Kensi flared her nostrils. "You don't lock the door!"

"The lock is broken, genius," Deeks rebutted. "And even if it wasn't, you should still think, oh hey the door is closed. Maybe someone is in here."

"You really should knock, Kens," Callen agreed, garnering a shocked look from Sam.

"You're really one to talk, G."

"You leave the door unlocked on purpose, Sam."

"This is way more information than I needed to know," Kensi interrupted with a grimace. "And Deeks is just pissed because I walked in on his special exercises."

"It's not...okay, but you still never knock."

"Special exercises?" Callen asked, though Kensi and Deeks paid no attention to him.

"I have nothing to hide, so why do you?" Kensi continued with a smirk. She had gotten probably a little too comfortable with sharing a living space with her Companion, but oh well. A bigger place with working door locks wouldn't be a  _terrible_  idea.

Rolling his eyes, Deeks pulled his breakfast out of the bag she was holding. "That much is obvious. Your new lacy lady things are quite lovely, by the way."

Sam looked around, confused. "This is really weird."

"Okay, but what are special exercises?" Callen asked again.

"It's just pushups," Deeks answered, shoving a bite of waffle taco in his mouth. "Hmm, this would be really good with some syrup."

"I do pushups every morning, what's the big deal?" Sam asked.

Kensi snorted and Deeks shot her a dirty look. "Cock pushups?"

Callen's eyes widened and Sam shrugged. "I could do cock pushups."

A chorus of three voices announced, "No you can't."

"Why not?" Sam asked. "Deeks does it. How hard can it be?"

Kensi choked on a bite of bacon and Callen shook his head slowly. "I would imagine that it would have to be extremely hard, actually."

"Yeah, Sam. I saw it happen. It's...wow."

"Thank you. I think. And you two, lay off the big guy," Deeks told them, clapping Sam on his bicep. "I'm sure you could do like, half of one. Maybe a whole one."

Sam narrowed his eyes. "Is that a challenge?"

"I'm not saying it's a challenge," Deeks said with a smile. "I mean, if you want to make it a challenge, then sure, it's a challenge. But not a contest though. I have a feeling you've never failed at anything in your life and I'd hate for you to start now."

The laugh that came out of Sam's mouth was so forced that it pained everyone. "It's on, Deeks. You pick the time, I'll pick the place."

"Alright, if you say so. I'll give you a week to practice."

Sam nodded. "The gym at work."

"We're gonna rock out with our cocks out."

"Fucking hell, Deeks," Kensi muttered, casting a disapproving glare in his direction. She was secretly laughing on the inside and he was loving every second of it. "Speaking of which, your Marty McFly is open."

"No it's not, but you almost made me look that time." He winked.

"I'm trying to learn how to trick him," she explained. "We can't exist in peace if he knows everything I'm thinking and feeling all the time, so I have to train myself to block him out. To fool him."

Sam and Callen shared a look with each other, carrying on a silent conversation that Kensi wanted to hear but Deeks couldn't care less about. "You two seem very...close lately," Sam commented.

"And he's seen your lacy lady bits and you've seen his special exercises," Callen added. "Is there something going on here we need to know about?"

"Really?" Deeks asked, suppressing a burp. "We are not having sex."

 _Yet_ , Kensi thought, knowing full well he could read her at the moment. Messing with him was fun, she'd discovered. Keeping their companionship flirtatious made their arrangement easier to live with somehow, even if it did present them with some awkward mental conversations at times. Okay, there were actually a lot of awkward moments, mental and physical. But nothing would ever actually happen between them. Probably. Maybe.

Deeks rolled his eyes. "Not for her lack of trying though. When I met her, she thought about sex ten times a day, max. Now it's fifty. And speaking of closed doors, should I mention what I caught you-"

"No!" She interrupted, clamping her hand over his mouth. "He's kidding."

A scratching sound rang in all of their ears, with Eric's voice booming through a second later. "Hey guys?"

"Sup, Eric?" Sam responded.

"Hetty wants you to be extra careful on patrol today," he answered.

Nell jumped in as well. "There's been an incident in Washington."

"Alright," Callen said. "Thanks for the heads up."

Deeks squinted into the sunlight, scouring the pier they were patrolling that day. "Nothing out of place, here anyway."

"But?" Kensi asked.

"Let's just stick with the 'not here' answer for now," he said, tossing his trash in their paper sack.

Callen raised an eyebrow. "Sounds ominous."

Kensi smiled tensely. "He always sounds like that."

"So, Deeks." Callen scratched his scruffy cheek. "Nell has a first and last name, but you only have the one. What's up with that?"

"High profile human," he answered. "I've never had to really deal with the political side of things so it hasn't been necessary for me. I'm kind of like G, actually. My driver's license has the initial M as a first name, but it doesn't mean anything."

"Maurice," Sam suggested, nodding his head.

Callen held up the baby name book. "How convenient that he just happened to find this lying in the middle of the street today?"

"Ha yeah, no," Deeks chuckled through a clenched jaw. "I don't need you guys to name me."

Kensi joined in. "What about Miguel?"

"Maximilian."

"Mitchell."

It was Kensi's turn again. "Monkey."

Deeks cut his eyes at her. "I'm not your monkey."

"Marco."

"Polo." Callen looked in the name book again. "Martin."

"Oooh." Kensi pursed her lips. "Marty?"

"No." Deeks shook his head. "I'm not going back to the future, and that name is just goofy."

"You're kinda goofy," Sam said. "It fits."

"It doesn't fit."

Callen clapped him on the back and started heading towards the waterfront. "Whatever you say, Marty."

Deeks scowled. "Dammit. Kensi?"

She linked her arm in his and smiled. "I like it." It wasn't like he had much of a choice in the matter now, but she knew her seal of approval would clinch the deal for him. He could try his best, but would never really be able to deny her.

His eyes twinkled and shone bright blue as he conceded to her. "Fine. But ya know, I'm perfectly fine with you just calling me Deeks. Or when we're at work, partner."

"Partner." That had so many meanings, and all of them seemed like they could fit. Kensi turned on her heel, leading him in the opposite end of the pier. Hanging with Sam and Callen was great, but they had work to do. "Partner is good."


End file.
